It's become tradition for the Prestonwood Christian Academy and John Paul II basketball teams to clash every March at the TAPPS State Tournament.

For the past two seasons, that has applied to the boys squads who will do so once more this year.

Only this time, the Lady Lions and Lady Cardinals join the fray as both the Prestonwood and John Paul boys and girls teams square off Friday at Mansfield Timberview in the state semifinals.

"The girls did a great job and this is a great milestone for them," said Steve Murray, Prestonwood girls head coach. "I found out this morning that we had one first-round win when we were a smaller school about 10 years ago and that was it."

The girls will kick off the four-game semifinal slate at 4:30 p.m., meeting for the third time this season.

The Lady Lions make the trip to state for the first time in program history following a run through the regional tournament at A&M Consolidated that saw them topple Tomball Concordia Lutheran (51-42) Friday and San Antonio Incarnate Word (50-33) Saturday.

"[Tomball' is] a very perimeter-oriented team and we didn't want to give them much space on the outside," Murray said. "We did a great job making their leading scorer (Taylor Longley) work hard for her shots and we made her foul out."

The Lady Cardinals are returning to Mansfield for the third consecutive year.

John Paul earned that opportunity after a pair of lopsided wins over the weekend, blasting San Antonio St. Anthony (59-33) and Trinity Christian-Addison (52-27). The latter saw the Lady Cardinals blow the game open in the second half, 30-10.

The Lady Cardinals advance to face a Prestonwood team it has never lost to in 10 meetings. The Lady Lions provided a pair of spirited efforts this season though, most recently tying John Paul after three quarters, 35-35, before being outscored, 24-6, in the fourth.

Prestonwood's interior tandem of seniors Mackenzie McNamara and Antoinette Iroko has befuddled the Lady Cardinals before, but seniors Claire Ricketts and Kindell Texada have had the answer late in recent outings between the two.

"[Prestonwood] is very talented," said Mike Martin, John Paul girls head coach. "They provide a lot of tough matchups for us with their size. They're playing well right now and with whatever opportunities we get on Friday, we're going to have to shoot a very high percentage to beat them."

Just as the Lady Cardinals look to secure a season sweep of Prestonwood, so will the boys, who take the court at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

The Cardinals claimed their first-ever regular-season sweep of the Lions with wins of 50-44 and 77-61, although the stakes shift dramatically for Friday's game as senior Julius Randle has returned for Prestonwood's past three games after being sidelined by a foot injury since November.

While the Cardinals -- primarily junior Jackson Forbes and senior Jason Martin -- were able to assert their size advantage over the Lions previously, that same luxury will be tougher to apply Friday.

"It certainly changes the matchup from our previous two games," said Jacob Anderson, John Paul boys head coach. "I watched [Prestonwood] play twice over the weekend and the way they play with and without Randle is night and day. He's such a physically imposing specimen and changes their team dramatically."

The results for the Lions have been three wins by an average margin of 19.3 points, most recently dispatching of Houston St. Thomas (67-56) and Bishop Lynch (86-57) in playoff tilts. The latter featured Prestonwood exploding for 60 points in the second half, whereas John Paul enjoyed a similar surge to distance itself from Beaumont Kelly in Saturday's quarterfinal tilt as it erupted for 30 points in the fourth quarter of a 70-46 win.

Prior to that, the Cardinals batted away El Paso Cathedral, 71-45, on Friday.

They'll ride that same wave of momentum into Friday against a Prestonwood squad that is as close to full strength as it has been all season.

"All those ups and downs have helped strengthen our team as far as faith and adversity," said Chris Mayberry, Prestonwood boys head coach. "It's helped our team come together in a spot where a lot of teams might have fallen apart."

For continued news and coverage on the local sports scene, follow @MWelchSCN on Twitter.

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