Shortly after missing out on the UIL playoffs for the second year in a row, Memorial’s girls basketball juniors assured coach Kevin Henry of something.

“’Don’t worry about it, Coach, we’re going to get there,’” Henry recalled the message.

“It’s been our goal since the beginning of the season to get to state, but like I told them, we’ll take it one game at a time.”

The Lady Titans (17-10, 11-1 in 21-5A), who have won nine in a row, made good on their word, but they’ll need one more game to try and win the No. 1 seed from District 21-5A for next week’s 5A playoffs.

The problem is that Barbers Hill (25-10, 11-1) and Memorial are sharing the same title. Each team beat the other on the road this season during district play.

“We know how they play, so we feel that we can come out with a win,” senior center Julia Sion said.

The winner will take on Crosby in the bi-district round and the loser will meet Friendswood, which tied Goose Creek Memorial and Galveston Ball for the District 22-5A title.

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The Lady Titans are not only riding a winning streak, but they’re enjoying the fruits of a nine-game turnaround from last season, due in no small part to Sion’s post play and guard play on offense and defense.

“It means a lot,” senior guard Denisha Anderson said. “It’s our senior year, both of us. We’re just happy to be back in the playoffs with coach Henry because wanted to make him happy. Just going to the playoffs, we wanted to make him happy, and [winning] co-district was just a plus.”

Memorial had last made the playoffs in 2016 and last won a district title in 2012, Henry’s first season as head coach.

Barbers Hill is more of a perennial figure in the postseason. The Eagles have been to the fourth round or further each of the past four seasons, including a Region III semifinal appearance last season and the state semifinals in 2017 behind All-American Charli Collier, now at the University of Texas.

The Eagles have adjusted to life after Collier well.

“Not only did we lose Charli, we lost seven seniors along with her,” Eagles coach Tri Danley said. “We’re reloading, and when you do that with a young team, you’re going to go through a lot of growing pains. In the last week to 10 days, our coaches and I feel like we’re getting better when we need to.”

Memorial and Barbers Hill traded seven-point wins this season, Barbers Hill pulling out a 47-40 win in Port Arthur on Dec. 18 and Memorial returning the favor, 41-34, in Mont Belvieu on Jan. 22.

“When we were here, we went back-and-forth and we were able to have the lead in the fourth quarter,” Henry said. “In the last 2- or 3-minute mark, things didn’t go our way, turnovers and missed free throws, and they made some shots. They were able to come out of here with a victory.

“Vice-versa, when we were over there, they were up and we were able to dig in and get a couple of stops and couple of steals to overcome the advantage they had over there. It’s going to be 32 minutes of war, and hopefully we’re the ones to come out on top.”

Despite tying for the district title, the Eagles are not exactly mirror images of the Lady Titans in Danley’s mind.

“They’re very physical and very athletic,” Danley said of the Lady Titans. “That’s opposite of what we do. We don’t rebound the ball and we’re not very athletic. We have to do things fundamentally. We have to feed off each other.”

Danley has an in-and-out combo he relies on in post Jaelin Holden, who like Sion has the ability to put up double-double statistics, and point guard Annie Carlile.

Henry’s all too familiar now with the Eagles, and he expects the rubber match to be no different from the first two — in terms of intensity.

“Both times we played, it was a war,” he said. “It went down to the last quarter, last couple of minutes of the game, and I figure this won’t be any different.”

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews