By now, the Fatima girls basketball team has realized the benefits of playing a tough regular season schedule.
And even if it resulted in some losses along the way, the Lady Comets know competing against high-caliber teams helped them get where they are.
Now, Fatima will look to extend its season once more as the Lady Comets take on No. 6 Ash Grove in a Class 3 quarterfinal game at 6 p.m. today at the O'Reilly Family Event Center in Springfield.
"When you look at our record, yeah, we have five losses, which is more than some teams playing right now," Fatima coach Dustin Hays said. "But those five losses have been very beneficial to us. We've learned something in all five of those losses and that's really helped us get to this point."
Prior to Wednesday's sectional game against Licking, Hays told his team, "There's nothing that should intimidate you at this point in the season."
Why would there be? Fatima (23-5) won its first district title since 2007 after knocking off St. James, the No. 1 team in the state, a fews days before.
But that wasn't the only test the Lady Comets faced this season - far from it, actually.
Fatima lost to Eureka, ranked third in Class 5, in overtime at the State Farm Holiday Classic on Dec. 28. A month later the Lady Comets fell to Hermann, which was ranked No. 1 in Class 3 at the time, 45-38 at Mizzou Arena.
The loss brought their record to 10-5, not shabby by any means. Still, that was a turning point in the season.
"I think we were putting too much pressure on ourselves as a team at that point," Hays said. "We came together and said, "Hey, from here on out, whatever happens, happens. We're going to have fun, we're going to keep working hard and good things are going to happen.'"
Good things did happen.
Fatima went on to win 13 straight games, including a 52-33 victory against No. 8 Licking in a sectional game Wednesday.
"The girls are playing carefree basketball," Hays said. "If they make a mistake, it's not the end of the world. We're shaking it off as a coaching staff and as a group of players. I think that positive energy since that Hermann game has really paid off for us."
That doesn't mean the Lady Comets are taking Ash Grove (26-4) lightly.
Hays knows what the Lady Pirates are capable of and that's why he went straight to work following Wednesday's victory. By the time he got home, there was already video and a scouting report waiting in his email.
"With this short of a turnaround, you've got to find things out very, very quickly," Hays said. "Luckily, I was able to do that. I've had a lot of help from other coaches and people from around the area who have helped me out quite a bit."
Hays quickly saw what he's heard about the Lady Pirates all year - they can shoot the 3-pointer. Ash Grove was 9-of-12 from beyond the arc during its 59-56 win against Strafford, and everybody had a hand in the victory - including Halee Cashio, who scored 18 points off the bench after knocking down six treys in the game.
"They're a very good 3-point shooting team - a very good shooting team in general, which poses a problem," Hays said. "I don't know if they have that one go-to player, but they've got seven girls that can score."
That might have helped Ash Grove breeze through district play. The Lady Pirates knocked off Sarcoxie, Clever and East Newton by an average margin of 35 points.
Their regular-season schedule wasn't easy, however.
All of the losses for Ash Grove, which fell to St. James in a quarterfinal game last year, has been to state-ranked opponents. The Lady Pirates suffered two losses to Crane, the top team in Class 2, one to Marionville, ranked fourth in Class 2, and one to Ozark, ranked 10th in Class 5.
"They're a senior-laden group, they've been to the quarterfinals before, so it's definitely going to be a tough matchup for us," Hays said. "Our schedule has prepared us for a lot of the things that we're facing at this point.
"We're seeing good guards, we're seeing good post players, but I told the girls, "We've seen it all before.'"