The boys’ basketball team will take on crosstown rivals Centennial Tuesday night as they look to advance to the regional tournament for the first time in school history.

The team defeated Centennial in two prior meetings, 60-39 on January 2nd, and 53-34 on February 2nd. However, the Titans defeated 10-5A winners Prosper 58-49, and Dallas Woodrow Wilson 59-46 to reach the 3rd round of the playoffs.

“We’re very familiar with them,” head coach Marcus Eckert. “It’s a good and bad thing. The good thing is that we know exactly what they do offensively, and we feel like we can defend really well. We feel like we can speed them up and force our tempo on them. The bad thing is, we’ve beat them the last six times we’ve played them. The last two times we’ve played them, we’ve beat them substantially. Regardless of knowing the truth that it’s going to be a good game and that they earned a spot to be here in the 3rd round, there’s still a component thinking we’re better than them. The deal is, nothing is going to given to us, and we’re going to have to earn it.”

A win could lead to a rematch with the #3 team in 5A, Lancaster, in the regional tournament. The two teams played in the Dallas ISD Coca-Cola tournament over winter break with Lancaster winning 62-52.  However Eckert ensures that the team will be focused on the opponent on hand.

“We treat it like any other game,” Eckert said. “We watched film on them, we had an extensive scouting report review, our practices were the exact same as they’ve been all year because this is an important game. I think we’ve done the right things to make us mentally ready for tonight’s game.”

The team will need to control the pace of the game to defeat Centennial for a third time this season, and are ready to execute in this crucial clash.

“It’s a battle of two different styles of play,” Eckert said. “They want to slow you down and take the air out of the ball and work the offense to get good systematic shots. We want to pressure and speed you up. The first key is that our tempo has to dictate, not there’s. Number two is to stay out of foul trouble. And number three is that we need to prevent good shot opportunities for Jonathon Washington, number 25.”