Brendan Murtagh led the way with eight points in Westmeath's Christy Ring Cup quarter-final win over Down at Navan.
Joe Clarke and Dan Carthy hit the goals that crushed Down's challenge in the sunshine at Pairc Tealtainn.
But it took the Leinster men some time to settle, after Down had held the lead for much of the first half.
Paul Brannif, James Coyle and Eoin Clarke were all on target as Down set a smart pace in the opening quarter.
They almost had a goal when Braniff cut in from the left to smack in a shot which was superbly saved by Pat Burke, but Connor Woods swept the rebound over the bar.
The Ulster men were at that stage much more efficient with their scoring chances than a wasteful Westmeath, and held that three-point cushion for the best part of half an hour, despite some well taken scores from Brendan Murtagh, Blain Leharte and Stephen Bardon.
But all that changed when the Leinster side stepped up the tempo dramatically in the final eight minutes of the half, outscoring their opponents by 1-04 to a single point to forge ahead.
When Bardon’s effort came back off a post, Joe Clarke was on hand to gather and blast to the net in the 29th minute, and points from Murtagh, Enda Loughlin and Leo Smith sent them in at the break with a 1-11 to 0-11 advantage.
The second half was just a minute old when Down went level with a goal from Stephen Clarke, who finished from close range after Burke had made a spectacular save from Coyle’s screamer.
But with skipper Andrew Mitchell providing a calming presence at the heart of their defence, the Lakelanders turned the game back in their favour.
Murtagh continued to hit the target, with Paul Greville and Stephen Bardon also weighing in with valuable scores.
Carthy was denied a goal by a superb Graham Clarke save, but moments later managed to beat the Down ‘keeper with a firmly struck shot to effectively kill the game off with a four minutes to play.
Westmeath: P Burke, A Price, P Greville (0-2), J Shaw (0-1), B Leharte (0-2), A Mitchell (0-1, f), D McCormack, S Bardon (0-2), E Loughlin (0-1), J Clarke (1-1), B Murtagh (0-8, 6f), E Price, R Whelan, D Carthy (1-1), A Dermody.
Subs: L Smith (0-2) for Dermody, A Dowdall for Loughlin, P Gilsenan for Leharte
Down: G Clarke, P Hughes, S Murray, S Ennis, S Wilson (0-1, f), F Conway, M Ennis, A Savage, E Clarke (0-2), C Woods (0-1), S Clarke (1-0), C Coulter (0-1), J Coyle (0-6, 3f), P Braniff (0-8, 4f), P Keith.
Subs: D Flynn for Conway, A Clarke for Keith, M Hughes for Wilson, J McCusker for Coyle
Referee: E Hassan (Derry).
