It’s Senior Night, a chance to claim the No. 1 spot out of the South and a huge game at home for the Adams Christian Rebels.

But somewhere to the South Central Private is smoldering.

It’s those Rebels who remain beside themselves after dropping a contest to Adams Christian at Central in the first meeting of the two schools. Since then Central Private hasn’t lost a game in District 2-AAA, and they don’t want to lose one now with a shot at getting the overall No. 1 seed for next week’s tournament on the line.

All that and much more is at stake as regular season prep basketball continues tonight in the Miss-Lou.

&uot;We’re looking forward to it,&uot; AC head coach John Gray said. &uot;They’re the No. 3 team in MPSA, and we’ve got our hands full trying to compete with them. I definitely think they’re going to play us well and with as much enthusiasm as they have because we’re the only loss they have and it was as their place. They have something to prove, and definitely look at it like a challenge.&uot;

It was the Rebels’ 49-48 win on Jan. 6 that handed the homestanding Rebels their first loss in district. Since then Central Private has been on a roll and hasn’t lost a district game coming in.

A win today over Adams Christian would put Central Private as the overall top seed at next week’s district tournament at Jackson Prep. Central Private has just four losses this season, and the three others were to Brookhaven Academy &045; a team Adams Christian lost to on Friday.

An AC win today may hand the overall honor to Jackson Prep and would put AC in as the No. 1 South seed.

And if it’s anything like last time when AC got a 3-pointer from Ray Simpson at the buzzer for the win, the AC Rebels will have to slow it down and keep Central Private from playing that Brookhaven-style ball with fast breaks and pressure defense.

&uot;We know we have to stop their quick breaks,&uot; Gray said. &uot;They’re tremendous at doing that, we need to stop that. We’ve got to stop that and get them in a half-court game. They’ve got three good offensive players that defend so well, too. I think athletically they may be the best team in AAA excluding MRA and JA.&uot;

If Adams Christian can keep it a half-court game and minimize their mistakes, they’ve got the players to match up. The AC Rebels like their height inside with Luke Ogden, Joey Norris and Casey Gould in the post along, but they won’t be effective in an up-tempo contest.

In that first game Gould and Ogden had tremendous games, particularly defensively, as their team worked at controlling the tempo.

&uot;I think that’s going to be the key,&uot; Gray said. &uot;If they get out on a break and get three on two or two on one, they’ll eat us up. I think that was our downfall against Brookhaven. We played well for 2 1/2 quarters, and then we started throwing it away and making bad passes. We started getting tired, and the pressure was getting to us. We’re just hoping we can play one of our better games and catch them on an average night.&uot;

Across the river, meanwhile, is another boys’ contest with huge playoff implications. Vidalia’s Vikings will host top-ranked McCall in a battle for the top spot in District 4-2A.

The Dragons, with losses to just Winnsboro and Carroll this season, can virtually claim the title outright with a win tonight, but the Vikings need a win and must win out to force a playoff tie-breaker.

&uot;They press a whole lot more than they have in the past &045; against us, anyway,&uot; Vidalia head coach Robert Sanders said. &uot;Just a lot of points off turnovers. On missed shots they would beat us back in transition. We took a lot of quick shots when people weren’t in position to rebound, and we missed a lot, too. We’ll have to make our shots.&uot;

That first contest the Dragons muscled out the win thanks to a sluggish third quarter from Vidalia. But since then the Vikings have muscled out wins of their own, including a convincing win over Lake Providence last week to sit in sole possession of second place.

&uot;We played a pretty decent game Tuesday, and hopefully being open Friday won’t hurt us going into it,&uot; Sanders said. &uot; We needed an open day to get the floor done. Hopefully it’ll be a day of rest and not a momentum breaker.&uot;