CRESTVIEW — Crestview High School's girls basketball team travels into uncharted territory Saturday when the Bulldogs travel to Apopka to take on Wekiva in the Class 7A region finals.
A win would send Crestview (20-8) to the state final four for the first time since 1991.
Crestview Coach Kathy Combest knows her team will be challenged in the 6 p.m. game.
"They are athletic and look to be pretty tall," she said. "What I see is we have played teams during the year that look similar to them on film. They will run a little bit, and they will try to shoot and take that ball in (the paint).
"I see two girls, when I'm watching the film, that look like their top girls. We are just going to work on shutting them down and just playing our normal defense."
Combest said Wekiva reminds her a lot of Pensacola High and Fort Walton Beach.
"They play the same kind of ball (as Fort Walton Beach)," she said. "They are going to play that spread out 2-2 zone from what I saw (on film) and what I got from coaches that have played them."
The Bulldogs have been on the road throughout the playoffs so Combest doesn't think going into another hostile gym will bother the team.
"We've been going on the road for every game so we've been traveling," she said. "Even though we just went to Fort Walton, we traveled to the district. We traveled to the region in Tallahassee and we traveled back to Fort Walton, so every time we've played, we've been on the road."
Combest said the team seeks donations to help cover travel expenses. Anyone wishing to donate to the girls basketball team can give through Crestview High School and designate the funds for girls basketball.
Randy Dickson is the Crestview News Bulletin’s sports editor. Email him at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, tweet him @BigRandle, or call 682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview girls face Wekiva in region finals