LEWISTOWN — It was just the kind of start the Bald Eagle Area girls’ basketball team needed.

Whatever butterflies may have been fluttering in the Lady Eagles’ stomachs were quickly gone.

“It was really reassuring,” senior forward Abby Gettig said. “It felt great.”

BEA shot off to an 8-0 lead in the first three minutes and never lost it, dropping Juniata 47-35 Tuesday night in their District 6 Class AA opener at Mifflin County High School.

“We got the jitters out of us,” said Gettig, who had six points and eight rebounds. “This win really turned it around and we feel good about it.”

The fourth-seeded Lady Eagles (18-6) will meet Westmont Hilltop at 3 p.m. Saturday at Hollidaysburg High School in the quarterfinals. The Hilltoppers beat Southern Huntingdon 64-42 in another first-round game Tuesday.

It was BEA’s first district win since beating Penn Cambria in a 2009 first-round contest.

“It’s been a couple years since we’ve won a district playoff game,” coach Troy Butter-worth said. “It’s nice but we want to keep this momentum going for the next game.”

Juniors Marissa Ward and Kaitlyn Miller were major catalysts in the win. Ward finished with a game-high 17 points and four steals while Miller had a double-double with 12 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks. Lexi Josefik added 10 points.

Maddie Zendt’s eight points led the Lady Indians (11-12), who were making their first-ever District 6 playoff appearance and first since a District 3 berth years ago.

The Lady Eagles could not ask for a better start.

Less than 30 seconds into the game, Miller and Gettig worked a perfect give-and-go with Miller hitting the layup to open the scoring. Miller had another layup 90 seconds after that, this time getting a feed from Josefik. Then Ward had a layup 30 seconds later, swiped the ball just after the ensuing inbounds and Miller eventually had another layup. It was 8-0 just 2:46 into the game.

“It was huge to get up 8-0,” Butterworth said. “It kind of took the wind out of their sails a little bit right away.”

Juniata coach Megan Geedey agreed.

“When you get yourself into a hole like that behind a team like Bald Eagle,” Geedey said, “it definitely makes it tough to come back, for sure.”

Miller added another layup on a put-back not long after as the Lady Eagles made sure the 6-foot-2 center was a major part of the game plan against smaller Juniata.

“I think that kind of was just luck,” said Miller, who was 5-for-7 from the field and 2-for-2 from the foul line. “I just started getting hot and just went with it.”

“I’ve been waiting for that for a couple games now,” Butterworth said. “We finally looked into her. A lot of times Kate could score more, we don’t always look in. Today we were looking in, she was catching it and she was putting it in the basket on the first try.”

It pretty well set up the Lady Eagles for the rest of the game. The Lady Indians had the margin down to two points not long after, but never had it tied. It was back to an eight-point margin by halftime, and the difference was never less than four nor larger than 12 after that.

“I thought if we could get a lead and put some pressure on them, hopefully we could get them to panic,” Butterworth said. “I don’t know if they panicked so much, but we caused some turnovers and got some easy baskets out of it.”

Miller also was a force at the other end with her four blocks, while BEA had seven as a team.

“We knew we had her height against them,” Gettig said. “We decided to use her big. She came out strong. I’m really proud of her.”

The Lady Eagles’ defense also forced 14 turnovers, 11 of them off steals.

Leading that charge was Ward, who got several quick baskets at the head of the full-court press, including a couple in which she swiped the inbounds pass right after a BEA score.

“Those were huge,” Butterworth said. “Anytime you can score a basket and turn around and score another one within three seconds.”

“As far as that girl goes, she’s good,” Geedey said. “She’s athletic and give credit where credit is due. She makes a lot of things happen for them. She’s long and gets her hands on lots of balls and she finishes really well.”

The end result is a District 6 victory, and a season that at least lasts to Friday.

“The jitters are out now,” Miller said. “We can feel more confident going to the next game.”

Notes: BEA shot 19-for-51 from the field (37 percent). ... Juniata made 14 of 58 attempts (24 percent). ... The win ended a two-game losing skid to close BEA’s regular season.

Gordon Brunskill can be reached at 231-4608.