SCORES TO BE SETTLED IN 2A SECTIONALS; ND GIRLS ENCOUNTER E. CARTER AGAIN

Notre Dame and East Carter are like bickering third cousins who see each other once a year.

Call it the annual sectional reunion.

For the third straight year, the Lady Bulldogs and the Lady Redbirds will scrap for the opportunity to advance to the Class 2A Quarterfinals.

And if history is repeated in the 8 p.m. contest at Cape Central's Tiger Fieldhouse, the outcome will come down to the waning seconds.

Last year, East Carter pulled out a 61-59 overtime win. In 1997, Notre Dame scored the game's last nine points to claim a 42-38 victory.

And the teams figure to be equal again.

"I expect this game to be a hard fought game," Notre Dame coach Jerry Grim said. "The other games went down to the wire. I expect this one to be the same."

In terms of balance, the two teams are similar. Neither team has a standout player, but both squads have individuals who are capable of having big nights.

In last year's sectional, then-junior Kara Phillips buried Notre Dame with 22 points.

"The Phillips girl about single-handedly beat us by herself," Grim said.

Phillips leads East Carter with about 13 points and nine rebounds per game. She is one of four East Carter players in double figures.

Notre Dame, which has a slight size advantage over East Carter, has three players -- senior guard Randi Senciboy, freshman post player Deana McCormick and senior forward Jill Huber -- who lead the team offensively.

"We go into it with a team concept. All of our players are important and anyone that we put in there is capable of having a good game for us."

"We've seen Senciboy before and we've seen Huber before," East Carter coach Steve Williams said. "They're good players."

Notre Dame has just one player averaging in double figures (Senciboy, 10 ppg.), but the scoring disparity between the Lady Bulldogs' leading scorers and East Carter's leading scorers doesn't bother Grim.

"We're not hurting for scoring," explained Grim. "We just want to keep the opponents from scoring more than we do. We just don't give up that many points."

"In years past, they've always played good defense," said Williams. "They're usually a strong, physical team. Notre Dame will always be good so you better show up to play."

Another reason Grim is not too concerned about East Carter's high scoring averages is the schedule they play.

The Lady Redbirds boast a gaudy 23-2 record. They haven't been beaten by a 2A team all year, but they certainly haven't played anything close to Notre Dame's brutal campaign.

Despite the Lady Bulldogs' less-than-stellar 16-12 record, they haven't lost to a 2A team either. Notre Dame has dropped games to three 3A schools and the rest have come to 4A squads like Jackson (23-2), Cape Central (18-7) and Poplar Bluff (21-6).

"Somebody asked me the other day what (Notre Dame's) record was and I told them it didn't matter because they play all those big schools up there," Williams said.