NAPPANEE - The weight of the world is off the shoulders of the NorthWood Panthers.

NorthWood avenged its only loss of the season in the sectional championship by defeating Lakeland by 20 points. Now the Panthers don't have that on their minds anymore. That weight showed in the sectional as the Panthers shot just 38 percent from the floor in their two games. Despite that, the No. 2 (3A) Panthers are hosting one of the Class 3A regionals on Saturday in another revenge game.

This time Plymouth comes knocking.

The Panthers dismantled the Pilgrims early in the season by a score of 58-18. Throw in that home-court advantage and you have the recipe for an overconfident basketball team. But according to NorthWood head coach Steve Neff, that won't be the case on Saturday.

"It was really early in the year and (Plymouth) wasn't playing very well at that point," he said. "We came out and got an early lead and maintained it. That game has nothing to do with this one whatsoever."

Need a reason for Plymouth to come into this game hungrier than ever? Take your pick.

First, Plymouth was beaten badly by NorthWood at Plymouth. The Pilgrims would love nothing more than to go to NorthWood and beat the Panthers on their home floor.

Or how about that long home-winning streak that NorthWood holds? Plymouth would love to snap that one.

How about the fact that NorthWood has ended Plymouth's season in the regional for four consecutive years? These individual Pilgrim players have felt the brunt of many of those losses and can't wait to return the favor.

And Plymouth has the firepower. When NorthWood beat Plymouth, the Pilgrims were in the midst of a 4-5 start. Since then, Plymouth has won 14 of 15 games. The lone loss was a triple overtime defeat at Chesterton.

Lisa Faulstich will lead a balanced attack for Plymouth. She is averaging just over 10 points per game on the season, but scored almost 15 points per game in the sectionals. Tai Duncan, Erin Cox and Erica Delp all scored at least seven points per game during the year. Lisa Mattke has 6.7 points per game and 3.5 steals along with being the team assist leader.

"Plymouth is a very well-coached team," Neff said. "They're going to be very patient on offense. We need to do the same old stuff as always - play good solid defense. That's going to determine the tempo of the game."

That defense that Neff wants to see is the same one that forced twice as many turnovers as NorthWood committed at the sectional. If the Panthers can do that against Plymouth, it could mean a long night for the Pilgrims.

But then, once the Panthers get the ball, they need to make their shots. NorthWood got plenty of easy shots at the sectional, but just had trouble getting them to fall. Neff doesn't see that as a problem this time.

"That will turn around, because, for one, we're at home," he said. "It's always nice to be in the friendly confines. No. 2, there was a lot of pressure for us in the sectional. I'm thinking that we're going to relax a bit more in the regional. I can't complain about the offense we ran or the shots we took. They were all good and they just happened to not go in."

Although this is the first time she's ever played on a sectional championship team, senior Tiffany Glingle understands what needs to be done. After transferring from Valley, she sat out last year and now has the same mindset as the rest of the Panthers.

"We want to go all the way," Glingle said. "But we've got to take it one step at a time. (Coach Neff) just tells us to stay focused. There's so many teams that don't make it out of sectionals, let alone regionals or semistate. We're fortunate." [[In-content Ad]]