NAPPANEE - A mismatch? Maybe so.

When unranked 13-10 Carroll (Allen) meets No. 2 NorthWood (22-1) on Saturday in the first round of the Warsaw Girls Basketball 3A Semistate, the Panthers will hold all the trump cards.

Semistate experience? NorthWood has that. The Panthers played in the semistate last year, while Carroll won its first regional this year. What's more, the Chargers won their first sectional ever this year. Carroll's 13-10 record is the best in school history.

Court experience? NorthWood and Warsaw both play in the Northern Lakes Conference so the Panthers play in the Tiger Den often. Meanwhile, Carroll has never played at Warsaw and will be moving into unfamiliar territory.

Firepower? Another edge to NorthWood. NorthWood has six players averaging at least five points a game and three in double digits. Carroll, on the other hand, has just three players above five points per game: Kate Rolf, Sally Hilger and Andrea Krouse.

NorthWood does a lot of other things better too. The Panthers shoot free throws at a 71 percent clip, while Carroll is shooting just 59 percent. NorthWood is at 51 percent from the field for the season, compared to Carroll's 32 percent. Carroll is actually being outscored on the season 49.8-46.4. All these numbers seem to spell trouble.

"Stats will lie to you," NorthWood head coach Steve Neff said. "We've talked a lot about not caring what the record is or any of that. Our goal is to get better. Carroll is a great example of that. They're a different ball club (than earlier in the season). They're playing with an aggressive attitude now and an attitude that says they can win."

But Carroll head coach Lisa Miller knows that the odds against her team are high.

"We're definitely going in as the underdog," Miller said. "(NorthWood) is the type of team that knows what it takes to win. That's what we're trying to get with our program. Hopefully this experience at semistate will help us with our program."

It definitely doesn't sound like a team expecting to win. Carroll is a program looking for the experience, while NorthWood is a team looking for the 3A state title. It's two teams coming from two totally different mindsets.

"It's almost unbelievable (that we're in the semistate)," Miller said. "Right now, the kids are having a hard time believing that they're in the semistate. They're taking it one game at a time and see what happens."

For Carroll to pull off the upset, they'll need big games from Kate Rolf and Sally Hilger. Rolf is scoring 16.5 points a game with five rebounds and over three assists. Hilger, at 5-feet-11, is the big body inside. She is scoring 14 points a game and grabbing almost 11 rebounds. For the Chargers to be successful, they'll need at least those numbers from those two. Then, they'll need other players to perform like they have in the postseason so far.

"In our run in the sectional and regional, our other kids have really stepped up," Miller said. "It's been a total effort of our starting five and we've had some key subs off the bench that have really helped us."

In the first semistate game, West Lafayette (20-4) will meet Lebanon (18-7). West Lafayette won an early season matchup featuring these two teams 52-49. For the Lebanon Tigers, it was just their second game of the season.

West Lafayette is led by the three Gebisa sisters. Lello Gebisa, standing at 6-4, leads the team with 16.9 points per game to go along with nine boards and six blocks, while Kuleni is tossing in 8.1 and Ebba 4.0 for the Red Devils. Junior Keaton Brumm is scoring 12.3 points a game and five assists.

Lebanon's Dana Western will bring her 16.2 points and nine rebounds a game to the Tiger Den. Lori Turley is the only other Tiger to score in double figures during the season at 11.4 points per game.

Like Carroll, neither West Lafayette or Lebanon is really used to this much exposure and getting this far in the tournament.

"We're not used to this by any means," West Lafayette head coach Steve Dietrich said of his No. 5 ranked Red Devils. "It's been two years since we've won a sectional and we've never been to a semistate before. The kids are extremely emotional at this point."

Lebanon and West Lafayette will meet at 10 a.m. on Saturday and NorthWood and Carroll will follow at 11:45 a.m. The championship game will begin at 8:15 p.m. All games will take place at Warsaw's Tiger Den. [[In-content Ad]]