The Westport Wildcats fought back to beat Atlantis Charter School in overtime Wednesday, coming out on top with a 59-50 road victory to improve their record to 2-5 in Division 4. Wildcats junior Skylar Rezendes led all scorers with 35 points.

“She’s a dominant inside force,” first-year head coach Christian Hutchison said of his star player.

The forward was injured much of last season and still wears a knee brace as a preventative measure.

But “I’m healed," she said after the win. "It feels great. We have a lot of good shooters. I am very confident that we are going to find our groove.”

It was nearly all Rezendes against the Tritons. The veteran forward scored 13 points in the fourth quarter and six more in overtime as Westport battled back from a four-point deficit with a minute to spare in regulation.

Atlantis had whipped the home crowd into a frenzy as they led 22-20 at halftime and 31-29 after three quarters. They scored 16 more points in the fourth quarter and that seemed to be enough.

But Westport rallied behind Rezendes’ relentless play at both ends of the court. She took the game into her own hands, consistently driving the lane and battling for a multitude of offensive and defensive rebounds. She was fouled with under a minute left to play and sank a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 47-45.

Then, Junior guard Kylie Hazel stole the ball with seconds left and dished a quick pass to Rezendes. She powered to the hoop for a layup to knot the game 47-47 and push the game into overtime.

Rezendes sinks 6 of 8 from the line in overtime

Rezendes drew four fouls in overtime and went six of eight from the line. Hazel, who had trouble finding the basket most of the game, heated up and scored four of her seven points, and Rego added another basket as Westport outscored Atlantis 12-3 for their second win of the season.

Westport scoring: Rezendes scored 35, Hazel netted 7 points, Jenna George scored 5, Molly Costa scored 4 points, Alexis Vieira scored 3 points, Emily Sowersby scored 3, Sophia Rego added 2 points.

New head coach

The Wildcats, who has struggled with their non-league schedule to start the season, have a new head coach, Christian Hutchison. He took over for Jen Garguilo, who had headed the girl's basketball team for more than a decade. Garguilo’s Wildcats consistently made the playoffs with their hard-nosed style of play.

Coach Hutchison, a science teacher at the middle/high school, coached basketball and baseball at Avon for four years and has coached AAU and other youth league sports before coming to Westport to teach three years ago.

“I am trying to get the team to play a little bit more aggressively,” he said. “I kind of like playing a more up in your face style. But you know, it's about building experience this year, because not many of them have a lot of varsity experience.”

Costa, Hazel and Rego all gained valuable varsity experience off the bench with the senior-laden Wildcats last season. This year all three are needed as starters to play with Rezendes, who cracked the starting five as a freshman. 

Vieira, a junior, and sophomores Jenna George, Bri Soares, Emily Sowersby and Brooke Crocker will platoon to fill the fifth spot in the lineup. 

Next up: Westport travels to Wareham on Thursday, 1/15, at 5 p.m.