Straughn must come out and play its style of basketball in order to be successful at the Class 3A, Area 2 tournament, Tigers coach Rusty Andrews said.

The Tigers (18-5) earned its first home area tournament berth since winning the area championship in the 2007-08 season.

Andrews said he always reminds his team that they are playing against perfection.

“As I always tell them, I can’t do anything about the teams we play,” he said. “We just have to go out and play our style of basketball. As long as we play our style of basketball, I’ll feel comfortable. When we get out of what we do best is when I get concerned. That’s really just taking care of the ball and taking good shots.”

SHS will play Opp in the area semifinals in the final game of the night at 8. Southside and Excel face each other in the second game at 5 p.m.

Andrews said it could go either way between SSHS and EHS, and that he doesn’t have a preference who he’d like to play if the Tigers get that far.

“Both of them are good ball teams,” he said. “Excel has improved from the beginning of the year. Southside’s always been traditionally a good team.

“As long as we do what we’re supposed to, I feel we could at least compete with them,” he said.

As much as basketball is a team sport, Andrews said he hopes a lot of the Straughn crowd shows up for today’s games.

“I’d like for everybody to come out and watch some good basketball,” he said. “We’ll have four games on Friday night and two on Monday.”

Admission to today’s games is $6 per person.