Henry Daily Herald

Photo by Darryl Maxie Luella coach Jamond Sims gives Antonio Brodie instructions during a home game. Luella needs one win, today at Westlake, to qualify for the state tournament. A loss, on the other hand, would end its season.

The good news is that they need only one win to make it into the state tournament. The bad news for both Luella’s basketball teams is, one win often seemed mighty hard to come by as both sputtered down the stretch.

The Lady Lions, winners of 11 in a row during one span, lost five of their final seven regular-season games. The boys team, which went into its final five games with a chance to finish second in Region 2-AAAAA, instead finished fifth.

Now, with their postseason fortunes hanging in the balance, each needs a win today against M.L. King in the Region 2-AAAAA tournament at Westlake High. The girls, fourth-seeded among eight teams, play at 4 p.m. The fifth-seeded boys follow at 5:30 p.m.

For both, one win means they can finish no worse than fourth in the tournament — good enough to advance to the state tournament, since each region in the state sends four representatives.

Knowing what one win means and actually getting it are two different things.

The Lady Lions split with MLK, winning 68-47 the first time in the midst of the 11 straight, and losing 65-62 in the second in a game they appeared to have well in hand at halftime.

To win, the Lady Lions likely will need a good perimeter game from guard Britney Guy and strong work down low from Brianna Moore and Terri Jacobs.

The Luella boys lost both meetings, 66-60 and 69-53, and hope they can disrupt MLK’s bread-and-butter tendencies — slashing to the basket and pounding the boards.

“The last couple of days our main focus has been keeping them off the offensive glass,” boys coach Jamond Sims said. “They’re not really a perimeter team. We want to force them to do something they’re not accustomed to doing.”

Tivius Guthrie does most of the slashing and penetrating for MLK and De’Aires Tate does a lot of the rebounding. Both committed to Grambling over the weekend.

Playing at Westlake, however, could serve as a powerful reminder for Luella boys as to their potential. That was the site of one of their closest games of the season, when it took Westlake — the tournament’s No. 1 seed and undefeated in the region — a last-second tip-in at home to win.