Jordan Madden follows through on one of her many charity shots during the state tournament in Cave City last week. She and the Lady Warriors will be making their second trip in three years to the state basketball finals. (Tribune photo/Ron Kemp) [Click to enlarge]

When the EPC Lady Warriors take on the Marshall Lady Bobcats in the 3A state championship game this Friday in Hot Springs, coach Bobby Lewallen's squad will probably be more familiar with the team from the 3A-1E conference than any group they have faced in the last two years other than their own conference rivals.

And that familiarity doesn't evoke fond memories due to an 0-3 record for the Lady Warriors against the Lady Bobcats.

"They've pretty much had our number over the last couple of years," said Lewallen of the team which has proven to be a formidable thorn in his team's side.

The first of the three meetings occurred in the second round of the 2007 3A Region 3 tournament at Bergman. The Lady Warriors went into the game undefeated since their loss to Strong in the 2006 state championship.

EPC was primed for a return to the championship after having easily dispatched Salem 71-44 in the regional's opening round. Whether having already qualified for the state tournament with the win affected their game or not, Marshall did one thing no other team had done all year to the Lady Warriors and that was to take them to the wire.

In fact at the end of regulation, the teams were in a dead heat. Then at the end of the overtime period, EPC was in shellshock from being on the short end of a 61-55 score. The loss was more costly than Lewallen and his team might have imagined, though, as just literally hours later, the Lady Warriors took their second loss of the year in the third-place game, falling to Cave City 52-51.

"We never got a chance to get our heads back up," Lewallen said at the time.

The crushing losses understandably had to have put doubt into the Lady Warriors' minds, but they went into the state tournament still with as good a shot as anyone to get back to the final.

And it looked as if they might when they beat first Bismarck, 54-42, in the first round, then Charleston in the second round, 53-52, to make it to the semifinal. Now just one game from their return to the big dance, who should they come up against, but none other than Marshall.

It was a chance for redemption, but for the Lady Warriors that redemption would not come on that day. Playing in front a clearly pro-Marshall crowd, everything seemed to go the Lady Bobcats' way. There was no overtime needed this time as the Lady Warriors took their final and most crucial loss of the season, 63-37.

"What can you say? They really came out on fire today," Lewallen said then. "They shot the ball unbelievably well, and we tried everything I could think of. I went with the 1-2-2, and then we switched to a 1-3-1, we even tried some full-court there and it didn't do any good, it was just their day. They're a very good, well-coached team."

That turned out to be an understatement as Marshall went on to win the state championship with a 64-61 victory over Shiloh Christian.

Now fast forward 11 months.

The Lady Warriors, while not undefeated, enter the 3A Region 3 tournament at Marmaduke as one of the three or four best teams in the state. Once again, they win the opening game in relatively easy fashion, dispatching Yellville-Summit, 63-44, to qualify for the state tournament.

Naturally, that fact should have brought great joy, which it did. But that joy was tempered somewhat because the win put the Lady Warriors into the semifinal game against, surprise-surprise, Marshall.

"I hope we're ready," said Lewallen before the game a week ago last Saturday, knowing they had been responsible for nearly half of EPC's losses in the last two years. After the game, Marshall would have the claim of being responsible for literally half of EPC's losses in the previous two years.

"We outscored them in the second half, but we just played bad in the first half and they got out in front by too much," said Lewallen of the 56-50 loss as reported in the Tribune last week. "Then when we had to shoot free throws, we were only eight of 18. We can't shoot like that and expect to win at this level. We have to be at our best once we get to this point."

Now, a week later, Lewallen added that the Lady Bobcats, "got us out of our game. They had us down by 17 at one time and made us play terrible for three and a half quarters. We came back in the last part of the fourth, but we couldn't pull it out."

Three meetings and three losses, that's all the Lady Warriors have to show for their series with the Lady Bobcats.

Well, now EPC, which blew out a talented Cave City team Saturday night in the state semifinal, 55-31, is preparing for the state final. By the time they met the Cavewomen, the Lady Warriors' opponent had already been decided earlier in the day. It was, of course, Marshall.

The Lady Bobcats defeated their opponent from the 2007 state finals, Shiloh Christian, 43-41, to bring about the fourth meeting between EPC and Marshall.

Will things be different this time? Maybe. If for no other reason, EPC has a few days to prepare for their nemesis. But, then again, so does Marshall.

"Now they are our only focus," said Lewallen as the Lady Warriors prepare for the 3:30 p.m. game. "We know all about them and they know all about us. They've got some great shooters and we're just going to prepare for them the best we can. We have to limit their shooting early. Hopefully, if we get down by five or six points early we'll know that we can recover if we keep out heads up. If we get our heads down, I don't know."

Two things EPC has going for it is the knowledge that two of the losses Marshall has experienced this season are against Cave City, which EPC demolished twice. Also, team leader Jordan Madden plays with some of the Marshall players on various AAU teams and so is very familiar with their tendencies.

Will all these things work together to help bring the first girls state championship trophy to EPC? Possibly! By Friday at 5 p.m. or so the answer should be clear. By then the Lady Warriors will be known by one of two designations, as the best or as second best 3A girls basketball team in Arkansas.

Stay tuned.