You might have a hard time finding a lowest-seeded team feeling better about themselves than the Natchez Lady Bulldogs.

The Lady Bulldogs go into today’s Division 6-5A tournament as the No. 4-seeded team in the four-team field and will face the top-seed in Warren Central at its gym in the opening night of the tournament. The Lady Bulldogs have beaten WC and No. 2 seed Forest Hill and are playing their best ball of the season.

The Natchez High boys also play tonight as tournaments in 6-5A, and the 7-3A tournament begins today at Hazlehurst.

&uot;We’ve been playing some pretty good ball,&uot; NHS coach Steve McClatchy said. &uot;It’ll be a challenge for us to go to Warren Central and beat them. We’ll have to be at the top of our game and force some turnovers. I think we’re playing as good a ball as we have this year right now. The girls can do it if they just go out and do it.&uot;

The Lady Bulldogs enter the game on a three-game winnin streak and winners of four of their last five games. That first win was the game they beat Forest Hill thanks to a tenacious man-to-man press that gave Forest Hill problems, and that’s been a key since.

The press worked well in games since then, and it worked well at times when the Lady Bulldogs handed Warren Central a 60-58 win in overtime back on Jan. 9. The team went to a zone press in Friday’s win over a good Wilkinson County team for the first time this season.

&uot;It’s helped because we struggled a little bit with our scoring on offense from the outside,&uot; McClatchy said. &uot;We’re kind of depending on what we get from our pressure defense. We’ll run different things at teams and see what works. The big thing Coach (Yvonne) Chatman has been preaching to them is being focused and playing hard. Everything they do is dedicated to Coach (Mary) Irving.&uot;

The Lady Bulldogs like their matchups inside against Warren Central, but it’s the WC perimeter game that’s giving McClatchy worries. In that Jan. 9 game, the Lady Bulldogs got WC’s top two players, Tranyce Peoples and Cookie Johnson, in foul trouble for most of the second half to stay in the game.

Even after Warren Central hit a big 3-pointer at the buzzer to send it into overtime, the Lady Bulldogs were able to get some stops on defense to get the win.

&uot;I think we might have a little advantage on guard play as far as handling the ball,&uot; McClatchy said. &uot;They’re a better outside-shooting team than we are. We can’t let anybody shoot without somebody on them. (Peoples and Johnson) kind of move around and get their shots around the goal. But like the other night against Jefferson County, they had a lot of people scoring.&uot;

The Bulldogs, too, enter the tournament as the No. 4 seed and feel good about their chances. They’ll face No. 1 seed Forest Hill, a team they also beat earlier in the season in a wild triple-overtime affair.

The Bulldogs, winners of three of their last four games, may be playing some of their better ball this season after struggling earlier in the season.

Over in 7-3A, both boys’ and girls’ brackets are a toss-up after neither side had a dominant team during the regular season. In boys, Amite County earned the No. 1 seed after defeating Franklin County on Friday night.

Jefferson County, loser of three straight, enters as the No. 3 seed despite splitting the regular season with Amite and Franklin during the regular season. The Tigers will face North Pike at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

&uot;We’re entering this tournament with high expectations, knowing that in our district we went 8-4 and we know we can play with everybody in our district,&uot; Jefferson County head coach Marcus Walton said. &uot;We’ll have to do the little things &045; defend, rebound and limit our turnovers. Our turnovers and defense have been our question marks all year.&uot;

At least the Tigers go into their Wednesday contest in better shape than last week, a loss to Class 4A Wingfield on Tuesday and another to Class 5A Warren Central Friday. Freshman center Joseph Kemp was out due to a virus, and forward Dudley Guice Jr. was out with a sore ankle.

Quinn Keys left Friday’s game early after he fell and got stepped on his chest and head.

It may be anybody’s race moreso on the boys’ side with the lower teams playing well. Hazlehurst, the No. 6 seed, two weeks ago went down to Wilkinson County and won, and Port Gibson beat Vicksburg last week.

The Wildcats are the No. 4 seed and play North Pike at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. Franklin County faces Port Gibson at 6 p.m. today.

On the girls’ side, the North Pike got the No. 1 seed in a region without a truly dominant team. Franklin County got the No. 2 seed and will play at 7:30 p.m. today against No. 7 seed Amite County.

The biggest game today is the 4:30 p.m. matchup of No. 5 Wilkinson County against No. 4 Port Gibson.

&uot;We’re right back where we were last year,&uot; White said. &uot;We’re in a situation where we’re not high-seeded, and it’s not a lot of pressure on us. We’re trying to do the exact same thing we did last year &045; pull the upset &045; if we can get by Port Gibson. Port Gibson is a good team.&uot;