The Porters Chapel Eagles are more than happy to have made it to the Academy-A state tournament.

They don’t want to end up being just happy to be there, though.

PCA will play its first game in the state tournament since 1997 this afternoon at 3:15 when it goes against Wayne Academy. The tournament is at Delta Academy in Marks, a four-hour bus ride from Vicksburg, and PCA coach Mike Grzanich said the Eagles plan on making the trip more than once this week.

“We’re not going just to show up and say we played in the state tournament,” said Grzanich, in his first year at the helm of the Eagles. “We’re going to accomplish something, and the first step is knocking off a number one seed.”

That would be Wayne, which earned that distinction by winning the Class A South Central State tournament on Saturday. PCA, meanwhile, took a pair of losses to District 4-A rivals CM&I and Sharkey-Issaquena in the North Central State tournament.

PCA still qualified for the state tournament – the top four teams in each of four regionals made the 16-team field – but fell to a No. 4 seed after losing to another district foe, Sharkey-Issaquena, in Saturday’s consolation game.

Bouncing back mentally from those losses won’t be as tough as rebounding physically, Grzanich said. The Eagles were only down by six against CM&I – a team that had beaten them by 58, 30 and 35 points in three previous meetings – heading into the fourth quarter before losing 88-68. The next day, they lost to SIA 46-39.

“It can’t get worse,” Grzanich said on Monday. “We played a tough game against CM&I and our boys were worn out against Sharkey. We just need to get our legs under us and go like crazy the next two days.”

While PCA is going crazy, the St. Aloysius Flashes will try to keep their head when they face Pelahatchie for the third time this season in the Division 7-1A tournament.

St. Al (5-20), the No. 5 seed, twice wasted double-digit leads against No. 4 Pelahatchie. Flashes coach Drew McBrayer said the losses showed inexperience, something his young team has gotten over more and more as the season progressed.

“We’ve done it a few times this year, and that’s a sign of a young basketball team,” McBrayer said. “They’ve grown up a lot. They’ve learned to play the game of basketball better than they did at the beginning of the year. It’s just putting four quarters of basketball together.”

The Flashes will also have to grow a lot more to stop Pelahatchie’s Joseph Thomas. The 6-foot-6 big man scored 39 points in the teams’ last meeting, a 78-63 Pelahatchie win on Feb. 1.

“We’ve got to be able to stop him,” McBrayer said.

For the Lady Flashes, tonight’s first-round game against Pelahatchie is a toss-up. St. Al won both regular-season meetings, but only by a combined 11 points.

The matchup of No. 4 and 5 seeds will come down to execution, McBrayer said.

“It’s a matchup we have confidence in, having beaten them twice, but it’s also a matchup where if you don’t come out and play ball you could very easily lose the ballgame,” McBrayer said.