When Madison Mittie heard the news last Saturday that she and the Manhattan High girls basketball team would host Topeka High for the first round of sub-state Wednesday night, she was excited.

Perhaps ironically so, as the last time the two teams faced off, Topeka’s Adrianna Henderson gashed Manhattan for 26 points in the Lady Trojans’ win.

But nonetheless, when a coin flip decided Manhattan would have the No. 3 sub-state seed, Mittie wasn’t upset.

“I was kind of excited, because I wanted to play Topeka High again to get revenge,” she said. “And I’m looking forward, if we win that, to play Derby too.”

Before that potential matchup, though, Manhattan will face Topeka High for the third time this season.

The Lady Indians are 1-1 against Topeka High this year. Henderson’s 26-point performance led Topeka to a 51-46 win on Feb. 16, but Manhattan routed the Henderson-less Lady Trojans 57-38 on Jan. 9.

For that reason, Manhattan head coach Scott Mall’s defensive blueprint will revolve largely around Henderson.

“We’ve worked on some different drills and stuff, because she does such a good job of getting the ball all the way to the basket, which we don’t see very often,” Mall said. “Trying to make sure our whole team knows what we’re trying to do and exactly how we go about it.”

Manhattan’s second-leading scorer in junior Gigi McAtee spelled out further plans — including using assistant coach and former K-State guard Will Spradling — to defend maybe the league’s most dangerous guard.

“We started doing a box-and-one. We’ve been rotating me, Tarrah [Bammes] and Haleigh [Harper] onto her,” McAtee said. “We’ve had Will practicing as [Henderson], which has been really good, to have him, and work on not letting her catch the ball after she passes it, and things like that.”

But as much attention the Lady Indians pay Henderson, they will have Topeka’s towering forward Erica Birch on their hands as well. She snatched up a healthy dosage of offensive rebounds in the teams’ last meeting, and for that, McAtee said defending both Henderson and Birch will prove a challenge.

“We’ve got to make sure we get Henderson stopped up high. She doesn’t really look for [Birch] as much,” McAtee said. “If our big gets over and if she does stop Henderson and she misses it, then [Birch] is right there on the backside to rebound and put it back. So we’ve got to make sure that our guards are helping off, so that she can solely focus on boxing her out.”

Those guards include Garrin Williams and Haleigh Harper, two freshmen experiencing their first sub-state environment. But McAtee said the lack of experience may translate into a valuable asset.

“I think it’s a good thing that maybe they don’t have that experience, because I don’t think they’re as nervous,” she said. “I don’t think they quite understand what this entails, which could be a good or a bad thing, but I think they’re just going to go out there and play hard, like they do every game.”

Win or lose, though, Wednesday will serve as Manhattan’s final home game of the season, and with that, the Lady Indians’ three seniors’ final time on the north gym hardwood.

Mall said the ride has been an enjoyable one.

“It’s been great. We’re disappointed we lost a couple of games at home, but we’ve had some close games,” he said. “For the experience we didn’t have coming into the season, we’ve really done an outstanding job.”

Manhattan is set to host Topeka High at 7 p.m.