NATCHEZ — After a heartbreaking one-point loss to regular season Region 7-1A champion Sebastopol in the region tournament semifinals Saturday, you might think the Cathedral Green Wave wouldn’t be able to get back up mentally for the tournament’s third place game against Bogue Chitto tonight.

But Green Wave coach Peter Arnold thinks otherwise.

“Some people might think maybe we’ll be down because we lost,” Arnold said. “And we were so dejected after that loss. But all we talked about afterwards was how determined and how hard we played. Because we’re young, I feel like we’ll get over that loss and come out with the same amount of fight.”

And if Cathedral can do that, they have a pretty good shot of beating Bogue Chitto.

The two teams split their regular season matchups, with each team winning on its home floor.

However, Cathedral could very easily have won both games.

The Green Wave let an eight-point lead slip away in a 58-51 loss on the road before avenging that loss with a 46-45 victory at home late in the season.

“It’s basically a 50-50 game,” Arnold said. “We’re pretty evenly matched teams. Size wise they’re a lot bigger, but we played zone (defense) against them and had a lot of success. So we’ll try that again and see how that works.”

Bogue Chitto likes to run and gun up and down the court while the Green Wave would rather play at a slower pace, Arnold said.

“The key for us is we need to get a lead on them and play from ahead,” Arnold said. “They’re the kind of team that when they get rolling they’re tough to stop. It’s important for us to get ahead of them and then play the game at our pace instead of the frantic pace they want to play.”

Even though both teams are guaranteed a spot in the South State tournament play-in game, a victory is vitally important for both teams.

The winner would finish in third place and play at Region 6 runner-up South Leake, while the loser would play at Region 6 champion Durant, one of the best teams in Class 1A.

“South Leake will be a difficult challenge, but Durant is by far the best team,” Arnold said. “Bogue Chitto and us will both do everything we can do to keep from going to Durant. That third spot carries a lot of meaning. If we can avoid going to Durant, we have a much, much better chance to advance (to the South State tournament).”

The game will take place at 5:30 p.m. today at St. Aloysius High School in Vicksburg.

The Cathedral Lady Wave will also be playing for third place in the region after dropping a 47-44 decision to West Lincoln in the semifinals on Saturday.

Cathedral girls coach Bernita Dunbar expects it to be a tough, close game, much like the two regular season games between the teams.

“I expect both teams to come out and play very hard,” Dunbar said. “We played them twice, and won by four points in both games.”

Dunbar said a victory in today’s game would give the team a big confidence boost heading into the play-in game.

“It’s big in that we can go in (the play-in game) with confidence knowing we can play with the best,” Dunbar said. “We’re going to go in and give it our best shot.”

The Lady Wave will take on Sebastopol in the third place game at 4 p.m. at St. Aloysius.