It seems like a long time ago, but the 2014-2015 basketball season got off to a rough start for the Washburn Rural girls, with the Junior Blues just 1-3 going into the Christmas break.
But the struggles didn't last, with Rural ending up in the Class 6A state tournament for the third straight season.
Washburn Rural, the No. 6 seed at 16-6, will open this year's state bid at 8:15 p.m. Thursday against No. 3 seed Olathe South (19-3) at Wichita State's Koch Arena.
The Junior Blues head to state having won six straight games and eight of their last nine.
"I'm extremely proud of them," Rural coach Kevin Bordewick said. "I told the coaches that I don't know if I've been associated with a team that's turned things around the way this team has. We were 1-3 before Christmas and since Christmas we're 15-3.
"I'm real happy, but at the same time I think we have this attitude that we're not done yet, too."
Rural advanced to state with a 58-43 come-from-behind win over Derby Saturday night, with junior Jordyn Musselman scoring 16 points and seniors Kelsey Browne and Paige Cunningham adding 12 points apiece.
Cunningham leads Rural with a 14.9 scoring average, while Musselman averages 10.8 points and junior Lauren Biggs just under 10 points.
Rural will be facing a familiar foe in Olathe South, a perennial state contender under veteran coach Steve Ingram.
"I think I read in the paper where they've made 11 straight trips, which is pretty phenomenal to do that and be that consistently good," Bordewick said. "We've been there quite a bit, too, and we're anxious to see what we can do against a really, really good team.
"They're just really physical, they're good and very well-coached. I have a lot of respect for what they've done."
Thursday night, however, Bordewick said his team's focus needs to be on what the Junior Blues want to do in the game.
"We can't be overly concerned with what they do or what they're going to try to take away," he said. "You can't get away from what got you there and I think we just kind of need to keep going and keep plugging away.
"We obviously have a scouting report and we'll go over some things that we think we can do or not do, but we've got to take care of our own business — take care of the ball, make our free throws. Those are the things we can control a lot more than what Olathe South does."
The Washburn Rural-Olathe South winner will advance to a 6:30 p.m. semifinal Friday to face the winner of the first-round game between No. 2 seed Wichita South (20-2) and Shawnee Mission West (14-8).
Wichita South is the two-time defending state champion and took a hard-earned 42-37 win over Rural in the first round of last year's state tournament.
Maize is the top seed at 22-0 and will play Blue Valley Northwest (13-9) in the first round. No. 4 seed Shawnee Mission Northwest (19-3) will face Manhattan (18-4) in the other first-round game.