"West Forsyth came out and hit a bunch of threes, ending up with 14 3-pointers," Lady Purple Hurricane head coach Donna Enis said. "They did a great job with the 3s."
She said the Lady Canes (5-4) must learn to defend against the long-range offenses as it competes in Region 7B-AAA.
She said although the Wolverines (3-6) are a Class AAAAA school, the Lady Canes must learn to step up their play when it goes against the teams in the higher classifications.
"I expected us to do better than that," she said.
The teams had been scheduled to meet Monday to open the tournament but those games were moved back a day because of inclement weather that struck Pickens County and north Georgia over the Christmas holiday.
West Forsyth jumped on Cartersville early on Tuesday, grabbing a 10-point margin at the end of the first quarter, 23-13.
By halftime, the Lady Wolverines had stretched their margin to 43-22, then were up 63-38 at the end of the third quarter.
"They had a hot hand and we didn't," coach Enis said. "We never got in sync."
She said she's always concerned how teams will respond after a long layoff.
The Lady Canes last played in the Rome News-Tribune Holiday Tournament, which was held last week.
"Coming off a layoff, you just don't know how they will play," she said. "Sometimes they come out kind of sluggish."
Scoring for Cartersville were: April Gary, 1; Stefanie Will, 2; Katie O'Connor 10; Kea Garnigan, 11; Kaelyn Irby, 14; Adrianne Green, 11; D'Yasmine Richards, 4; and Jazmine Baldwin, 3.
Cartersville is scheduled to play Lumpkin County, a Class AAA team, today at noon.