After a strong showing to close out the season the Charles Henderson High School Trojans are primed to kick off the area tournament on Friday against Eufaula.

The Trojans come into the postseason with an even 3-3 area record in a season that saw them win five of their last six regular season games.

But despite dominating the final few weeks of the regular season, Trojans head coach Carl Hollis knows that Eufaula will be a tough challenge.

“It’s going to be a dogfight,” he said. “We’re hoping to go in ready to play because Eufaula won’t lay down for us, they want to win and so do we so it’ll be a dogfight.”

The Trojans have already faced Eufaula twice this season, splitting the record and beating the Tigers in a home matchup on Jan. 20.

Now playing on a neutral site for the postseason the Trojans have been using the week leading u to the game to strengthen their defenses and tighten up their game.

“We’ve been doing drills to get better on defense and we know what defense can do for you when you do it right,” Hollis said. “Friday night we’re going to have to bring the best defense we’ve had. It’s going to be a neutral site but it’s basketball and location doesn’t matter you’ve always got to play your best.”

The Trojans late season success, which included a four game winning streak that lasted from Jan. 17 to Jan. 27 and later a Feb. 3 win against Dothan, will no doubt serve as a confidence builder for the team, but coach Hollis knows that beating one team doesn’t mean you can beat another.

“I think beating Dothan last week was good but Dothan and Eufaula play two different types of basketball,” he said. “Dothan plays different in the paint and Eufaula is going to play a total basketball game, we’ve got to defend hard both inside and outside if we want to win.”

Unlike most teams in the area, the Trojans have been given a good deal of time to prepare for the matchup, having an entire week to focus solely on practicing for the postseason.

For Hollis and the Trojans that means keeping focuses on the practices that helped get them this far and polishing some of the rougher edges of their game such as defense and turnovers.

“We’ve been practicing and putting a lot of emphasis on things we haven’t been doing well,” Hollis said. “We’re working on making a C plus game into an A level and making sure we get better in certain areas. I’ve been emphasizing that if you play well you can keep playing well but now a loss means there’s no more games, if you want to keep going you have to keep winning.”

The area tournament for the Trojans will be held in Rehobeth, and should the Trojans bring in a win over Eufaula they will play the winner of the Rehobeth vs. Carroll game in the final match on Monday, Feb. 13.

“We hope some of our spectators will come to Rehobeth and cheer us on,” Hollis said. “We appreciate our spectators and it does make a difference sometimes in how our kids play.”

The Trojans will tip off on Friday at 6 p.m.