Hermiston sophomore Maloree Moss fights through the Bend defense earlier this season in Hermiston. Hermiston will host Madison Friday with the winner advancing to the state championship bracket in Eugene.<br><i>Staff photo by E.J. Harris</i>

HERMISTON – The Hermiston girls’ basketball team has one more hurdle to leap before it can finalize plans for a trip to Eugene and University of Oregon’s McArthur Court for the Class 5A?State Championships.

The Madison Senators (12-11) will enter a feisty Dawg House Friday night for a 7 p.m. game, with the winner moving on and the loser looking to next season.

Hermiston coach Steve Hoffert isn’t letting his team even discuss the Portland Interscholastic League’s second-place team until today, but he was able to share a little insight he’s gathered over the past two weeks.

“Madison is kind of like a Cleveland from last year and a Churchill that we played this year. They run a lot of spread offense, a lot of penetrating, driving to the baskets. They’ve got a couple pretty good shooters and a decent post player … ,”?Hoffert said. “They like to play a little up-tempo, they like to pressure, they like to run. So it kind of sounds like what we’re going to do. I?just think we have more athletes.

“We’re going to go out and try to play the same kind of game that we did against the Crook Counties, the quicker teams, the Madrases.”

Madison enters Friday’s contest averaging just 39.9 points per game while giving up 40.8. The Lady Dawgs (16-5) aren’t concerning themselves too much with what Madison will or won’t do Friday but one thing Hoffert does expect from Madison, which is smaller than Hermiston, is for the Senators to test the referees’ boundaries and try to get physical with his team.

“Their size is going to be an issue for them and our size is going to be a huge advantage,”?Hoffert said. “You’ve got to find a way to make other girls uncomfortable with where they are and physical dominance will intimidate a lot of basketball girls. We’ve done a lot of drills this week in preparing for that.”

Hermiston averaged an Intermountain Conference-best 56.5 points per game this season while allowing 45. While it is difficult to compare conferences, Hermiston went through the wringer in a tough league?slate and feels its run to second place in the IMC has been good preparation for another run at the state level.

“We’ve played a lot of close games in the IMC,” said Hermiston sophomore Maloree Moss. “The last two minutes of a game are huge, you can either win the game or lose the game. We’ve played a lot of close games where we’ve had to keep the lead and where we’ve had to come back so we’ve seen both aspects, so I think it will help us.”

The Lady Dawgs’ second-place finish also left a lingering bad taste in their mouths they hope to cleanse with some playoff success.

“I?know a lot of our girls wanted to get first and so now they’re hungry for that playoff game,”?said Hermiston senior Mary Barnett. “There’s no doubts in our minds that we’re going to come out and play as hard as we can. … We’re going to come out strong and hopefully come out victorious.”

The Lady Dawgs last made the final bracket in 2008, when the games were played at University of Portland’s Chiles Center. The girls made the final game that year before falling to Jefferson 67-58. Just senior Kayleigh Barnitz was a part of that run, though it was as a spectator.

“We’re definitely trying to take it one game at a time but you can’t really do that,” Barnitz said of letting her mind wander into the future. “The anticipation is so strong, once you get there it’s a once in a lifetime thing.”

Madison is back in the playoffs for the first time since 1996 and hasn’t advanced to the final tournament site since 1982.

NOTES:?In an effort to keep his team mentally sharp this week, Hoffert has introduced a lot of new drills to practice.

“It’s been a week of challenges and a week of thinking,”?he said. “We’ve done a lot of competitive drills this week that they’ve never seen.

“You have to do something different, you have to step it up and you have to create challenges and have your girls rise to the occasion.”