Macon — Championships are the standard for the Wesleyan girls, so a little quibbling over details might be understandable, even after an 89-65 dismantling of Savannah Christian in the Class AA semifinals.

Junior post player Anne Marie Armstrong scored 40 points, and the 89 points was the third-most the Wolves (29-3) had scored this season.

But the number that had coach Jan Azar perplexed afterward was the 65 scored by Savannah Christian, 13 more points than Wesleyan had allowed to any Class AA team all season.

"Of course I'm happy to be playing for a state championship," Azar said, "but we're going to have to play better defense if we're going to get the trophy. We played well offensively, but we didn't get any [defensive] stops."

Wesleyan was not sharp at the outset, and for a quarter the Red Raiders stayed close.

Then Armstrong took over on the offensive end. She scored 16 points in the second quarter and finished with 17 rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots.

"The were doubling down some early, but a lot of the time it was me against one person," said the 6-foot-2 Armstrong. "I had the height advantage."

Erin Hall added 13 points and Judean Hanks 10 for the Lady Wolves, who lost to Greater Atlanta Christian in last year's title game.

Wesleyan, which won championships in 2004, 2005 and 2006, will appear in its fifth consecutive state final Saturday, when it will face 6-AA fourth seed Paideia, an overtime winner against Randolph-Clay earlier Thursday.

The Wolves sprinted to an early 7-1 lead, but Savannah Christian answered and trailed just 16-13 at the end of the opening quarter. But then guards Chantel Kennedy and Aysia McKenzie made a conscious effort to feed Armstrong the ball, regardless of where she was. Her scoring total included two first-half 3-pointers.

For this, the Raiders (21-8) had no answer.

"I had an idea of what we were in for looking at her on tape," Savannah Christian coach Toy Byrd said, "but maybe I underestimated her a little."

Meredith Stevens scored 14 points and Adrienne DeFilippis and Kaila Parham 11 each for Savannah Christian.