MARSHALL, Texas — Like a professional ballerina's audition, Pleasant Grove will need its best performance to succeed.
The Lady Hawks (27-4) take on Bullard (33-4) in a Class 4A, Region II regional quarterfinal girls basketball playoff game at 6 p.m. today at Maverick Gym.
Pleasant Grove seeks to make back-to-back regional semifinals appearances. Last year, the Hawks fell to Lincoln, 71-39, in the regional semifinals.
"Bullard is very disciplined on offense," Hawks' head coach Marsha Cowling said. "They'll run the offense until they get a good shot; they aren't impatient. They have a lot of 3-point shooters and a couple of big girls inside. I don't think they press or do anything spectacular on defense. From what I have seen, they play man-to-man."
Pleasant Grove is coming off a 58-47 victory over Van in the area round. The Lady Panthers defeated Canton, 53-39.
The starters for the Hawks are Asia Lloyd, Ashanti Levingston, Miaya Ware, Shanequa Henry and Keshawn Davis.
Henry was the game's leading scorer with 22 points in the area game, while teammate Davis put up 10 points and led Pleasant Grove in rebounds with seven. Henry came through in the clutch against Van as she hit on 10 of 12 free throws in the fourth quarter to seal the win.
"Our defense is going to be a big key," Cowling said. "Bullard sets a lot of screens to get people open, and our defense is going to have to be in their face. Hopefully, we can do something with our press and make them turn the ball over.
Reserves for the Hawks are Taylor Whitaker, Alex Norton, Brianna Block, Phoebe Robertson, Kiana Murphy and Winter Crouch.
Pleasant Grove is averaging 60.0 points per game in the playoffs, while Bullard averages 55.0. Both teams have given up an average of 41.0 playoff points.
The Hawks have turned the ball over 15.0 times, on average, in the playoffs. PG averages 27.0 rebounds per playoff game as a team, and has hit on 38 of 92 shots during the playoffs (41.3 percent).
The winner will play either Lincoln (19-8) or Aubrey (19-13) in the Class 4A regional semifinals.
