Douglas High's girls' basketball team will see some familiar faces when it enters the court at the Lawlor Events Center tonight (5 p.m.) for the first round of the NIAA 4A State Championships.
The Lady Tigers, 19-8 overall and second-place finishers at last week's zone playoffs, face Las Vegas High, which is 25-4.
Las Vegas topped Douglas 51-36 in a tournament game in Las Vegas back in December.
"We played very poorly," said Douglas coach Werner Christen, while watching a tape of Las Vegas. "We didn't do a lot of good things that day.
"We've improved quite a bit. That's not to say they haven't. I think it will be a good game."
Bill Giguere, Las Vegas head coach, said he also expects a hard-fought game.
"I expect a good, hard-fought game," Giguere said. "As long as we can contain (Emily) Haas, and play good defense we'll be in it.
"We've been playing pretty good. I think Douglas is a real good team. They play tough defense, and they're big and strong. I hope we can take care of the ball."
Giguere doesn't believe that the earlier victory gives his team any advantage tonight.
"I don't think it makes a difference," he said. "All it shows is that we can compete with them. We just need to go out and play."
And, the Wildcats have three solid players -- 5-6 guard-forward Kim Etol, 5-4 point guard Stacey Pena and 6-foot center Melisa Cejas -- who provide plenty of offense.
Etol averages 18.4 points, 6.5 rebounds and 4.1 assists per contest. Pena leads the area in assists with 7.2 per game, and she also scores nearly 14 a contest. Cejas averages 15.2 points and 14.3 a contest.
Julie Gingrich is averaging 10 points and four blocked shots in post-season, and Brinkmeyer is averaging eight per game in the postseason.
It should make for an interesting battle between Haas and Cejas. Haas, who averaged 9.7 points and 12.7 rebounds a game last week, said Cejas is somewhere in the middle between Wooster's Brianne McGowan and Reno's Jessica Stewart.
"She's not so big like Brianne, but she's not slender like Jessica," Haas said. "She's not very fast. As long as I block out and rebound ..."
"We have to focus on defense," Erin Brinkmeyer said. "We have to concentrate on knowing our plays and our assignments."
And, the Tigers need to keep their top players on the floor. Haas fouled out in two of the three zone games, and Brinkmeyer got in early foul trouble against Reno.
The state championships are sponsored by U.S. Bank.
