Cornerstone Christian and Kingwood Christian boys both finished as runner-up in their respective area tournaments last weekend, but are on their way to the state quarterfinals in Montgomery.

Cornerstone enters the tournament for the third straight year and sixth time in eight years after falling to Warrior Academy 62-58 in the area final and will meet again on Thursday.

Despite the loss, coach Tim Smith hopes his team can make a run in the tournament.

&8220;They&8217;re playing pretty well. This will be the fourth time we&8217;ve played Warrior this season. We feel like we&8217;ve ben getting close every time, so maybe this will be the one,&8221; Smith said of the battle with the defending state champions through the season.

Warrior has won the three meetings by margins of 10, eight and four.

Kingwood Christian fell to Lakeside 58-45 on Saturday to finish as runner-up in the area, despite winning both regular season meetings.

&8220;Those wins don&8217;t matter. Come area tournament time you’ve got to play with intensity, and not have in the back of you mind that you’ve already beaten this team,&8221; said head coach Chris Simpson. &8220;It was disappointing not to finish the sweep and get the hardware, but at the same time it gives us an opportunity.&8221;

That opportunity is how to learn from the loss and prepare for a state title run.

&8220;I’m counting on preparing the team like I would a state championship. We’re playing a really good team that has final four potential,&8221; Simpson said of facing Lakeside again.

&8220;We lost the area and they got the first place trophy, but we have a chance to beat them on a neutral court.&8221;

Should both Cornerstone and Kingwood win, they will advance to the AISA Class 1A and 2A Final Four at Huntington College