TALLULAH – For years, McCall’s boys and girls basketball programs played an intrasquad game of &#8220Can you top this?”.

Each team basked in the glory of winning seasons, district titles and state championships, always trying to stay one step ahead of their counterparts.

Eventually, the girls program fell by the wayside as the boys plowed ahead and earned more hardware and kept the school’s basketball reputation intact.

Now, more than a decade after their last state championship, the girls’ program is back. The school has a new name – McCall merged with longtime rival Tallulah High last summer to create Madison Parish High School – but the legacy is definitely the same and tonight a new chapter can be written.

Madison, which still plays in McCall’s gym, hosts Episcopal in a Louisiana Class 2A girls’ quarterfinal playoff game at 6:30 p.m. The winner advances to next week’s Sweet 16 tournament in Hammond – the state’s equivalent of the Final Four – to face either Many or East Beauregard.

&#8220I’m used to being down there with the boys,” said Madison coach John Holmes, a longtime assistant for the boys’ program that has reached the state semifinals six times in eight years. &#8220I want the girls to get that experience, to get down there and see what it’s like.”

McCall won three consecutive state championships, from 1992-94, but the program slipped after several coaching changes. The Lady Dragons were competitive, but weren’t championship-caliber.

When Holmes took over as coach three years ago, one of his missions was to bring back the tradition he had witnessed and helped build as a player and coach at McCall.

&#8220It’s hard to build it back up, because a lot of these girls were real young when that was going on. There’s such a gap between them. They see pictures, but that’s it,” Holmes said. &#8220The more they play well, and the further they go, the more it catches on.”

It has definitely caught on this season. After two years of playoff disappointment under Holmes – McCall lost in the third round in 2004, and in the first round last year – Madison Parish has gone 20-9 this season and blown out its first two playoff opponents.

Madison beat Sterlington 64-47 in the opening round, then knocked off St. James 71-62 on Monday to reach the quarterfinals. Led by forward Edeena Cooper (17 points per game) and junior guard Aerica Hicks (21 ppg), the Lady Jags have proven to be a tough matchup, and should be for a while. They only have two seniors on the roster.

While the Lady Jags will try to take a step back to glory tonight, the boys’ team will begin its latest quest for an elusive state title on Friday with a first-round game at home against Farmerville at 7 p.m.

McCall’s last state championship came in 2001, although the Dragons were frequent visitors to Lafayette for the Top 28 tournament. McCall, with many of the same players as this year’s Madison squad, reached the Class 2A semifinals last season before losing to West St. John.

In Mississippi, Hinds AHS will open South State playoffs today in both boys and girls.

The Hind AHS Lady War Dawgs will carry a 30-1 record into today’s opening game, but they won’t be the favorite in the 8-team event.

That distinction goes to the tournament’s host in unbeaten Perry Central (30-0). The field also includes defending 2A State Champion Newton and Philadelphia (29-3).

Hinds will open up against Williams-Sullivan.

&#8220We know it’s going to be a challenge because we saw Perry Central, Philadelphia and Newton last year down there,” Hinds coach Bruce Baker said whose team finished fourth last year at South State and missed a chance at going to the Mississippi Coliseum.

&#8220Newton has a big team, and the only girl Perry Central lost was its big girl. But they have so much quickness and you also have to deal with that mystique that they have down there.”

The Lady War Dawgs, who whipped Bassfield 59-34 on Tuesday night in Utica, must first get by Willams-Sullivan, a team from the Durant area that has been a regular at the tournament.

&#8220Williams-Sullivan is well-coached and they rebound well. They have an aggressiveness that they used to beat Bay Springs six at their place. That says something,” Baker said.

The Hinds boys (27-4) are headed to Kemper County for the South State 2A Boys Tournament. The War Dawgs will meet Scott Central (22-10) tonight at 8:30 in Dekalb.

Hinds coach Keith Williams has a good idea what the War Dawgs will face at the eight-team tournament.

&#8220The further you go, the better you have to play. If we can continue to fight, we can do well,” Williams said.