For the Thompson Lady Warriors&8217; historic run to press forward, they must first go through the top-ranked Bob Jones Lady Patriots this morning.

&8220;They&8217;re the number one team in the state for a reason. They&8217;re just good, but I have an idea,&8221; Coach Cara Crosslin said.

The Lady Warriors (26-6) meet Bob Jones (30-3) this morning at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville in the Northwest Region Tournament, the program&8217;s first-ever Class 6A regional.

&8220;They like to play man-to-man defense and are very aggressive with their trap,&8221; Crosslin said. &8220;Are they beatable? Yeah, but it depends if my girls want to play. They need to have confidence that they can do it. Not be cocky, but know that they are a good team and can match up against any good team.&8221;

Two players who can help the Warriors pull off the upset and advance to their first regional final in 10 years are senior point guard Christina Shelton and junior guard Rhonda Watts.

&8220;Chris does a very good job of seeing what is coming (to avoid a trap), but if she gets caught up, then Rhonda (Watts) takes over. Teams have a game plan to trap us a lot and quick, but we see it and can get out of it,&8221; Crosslin said.

Shelton collected 10 points and four assists in Thursday&8217;s 66-50 sub-regional victory over Northridge, while Watts led the way with 20. While Watts continues to lead the way with an average of 14.8 points per game, Zorriah Williams was a Warrior off the bench Thursday with 13 points and 12 rebounds.

&8220;She is injured and we&8217;re trying to hold her out as along as possible, but we ended up putting her in with a minute left in the first half, and she provded a nice spark,&8221; Crosslin said of the team&8217;s response to a 13-0 run by Northridge at the end of the first quarter to pull to a 34-33 deficit at the half.

With a win today, Thompson will advance to their first regional final since 1998 to meet either Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa (32-0) or Sparkman (24-3) on Saturday at 9 a.m