Capital City girls basketball coach Ryan Madison found out during a summer camp one of the toughest games the Lady Cavaliers would play in their first season would come during the River Region Credit Union Shootout.
"They're good, they're really, really good," Madison said of the Tipton Lady Cardinals, who Capital City faces at 5:30 p.m. today at Fleming Fieldhouse. "It'll be a challenge for us, it will make us better."
Tipton moved up from No. 5 to No. 1 in Class 2 in this week's Missouri Basketball Coaches Association poll.
The Lady Cardinals are off to a 5-0 start, including winning their home tournament championship.
Tipton won its three tournament games by an average score of 74.7-41.3.
"We'll have to limit the possessions as much as we can," Madison said, "and I'm sure they'll pressure us and we'll have take care of the ball. That's been our thing early in the year is we've struggled a little bit taking care of the ball at times, but I think we've gotten better at it."
Capital City enters today's game at 1-6 with a 24-17 victory against Kirksville in the Marshall Tournament.
The Lady Cavaliers have limited four opponents to fewer than 50 points: Eldon (33), Marshall (47), Kirksville (17) and Father Tolton (46).
"Hopefully we can get them out of their game plan and they have to play to us," Tipton coach Jason Culpepper said.
Capital City will have to try to find a way to slow down Tipton senior Abby Backes, who broke the school's all-time scoring record of 1,853 points earlier this season.
Hayley Veulemans, who graduated in 1995, was the previous record holder.
"It's pretty awesome in the second game of her senior season to break the school record," Culpepper said. "I'm really excited for her and to see how far she can push that bar up to see if she can make it last for 25 years like the last record holder did."
Tipton is making its first appearance in the Shootout since 2015.
"For us to come back up here again is a great opportunity," Culpepper said. "I'm excited to have the opportunity to play them."
The Capital City-Tipton matchup will be the sixth and final game of the day.
"A lot of great players, a lot of great teams," Madison said. "I've heard great things about it for years, so it'll be a lot of fun."