BLUEFIELD, Va. — It’s a name that the Graham G-Girls remember well. Angela Mickens made it hard to forget. 

“She is a good player,” Graham senior Chelsea Gallinger said.

Real good.

Just a freshman last March, all the Robert E. Lee point guard did was score 28 points, one more than Graham, as the Lee Ladies defeated the G-Girls 52-27 in the Group AA, Division 3 state quarterfinals.

Those two clubs meet again today at James Madison University. Tip-off is slated for 3:15 p.m.

“A good thing about it is we’re facing the same team. When you get to this level you usually have an opponent you haven’t faced or you’re not familiar with,” Raban said. “They do have everybody back from last year.

“That could be a negative, but the positive side about it is you’re familiar with them and you kind of know what to expect when you’re going in.”

The winner advances to the Division 3 semifinals on Tuesday in Richmond, while the loser calls it a season. The G-Girls — led by seniors Gallinger, Kelli Landreth and Bethany Spracher — are in no hurry to put up the uniforms for the last time.

“We’re excited and we’re happy to be right back in the same place we were last year,” said Gallinger, whose G-Girls are making their second straight state tournament appearance, having last gone in 1921.

“I think we are a little more prepared this year since we have played them before so that is an advantage to us.”

Graham (13-11) finished second in the Southwest District and Region IV tournaments, while Robert E. Lee (14-4) won the Shenandoah District and Region III tournaments.

Lee has been led all season by Mickens, who is averaging 18.8 points, 8.3 assists, 6.4 rebounds and 4.8 steals per game. Stopping her will be paramount for Graham success.

“We scored 27 in last year’s game, and Mickens had 28 so we’re going to take the same approach this year, but we’ve just got to limit Mickens, we can’t let her beat us,” Raban said. “We’ve got to have it spread out, we’re going to go with the same game plan and just try to contain her and not let her get as many points as she did last year.”

The Ladies also have size, led by DaQuaa (14.1 points, 11.1 rebounds) and Kendra Scott (8.9 ppg), who missed much of last season with a knee injury. Junior Maegan Henry, who led Graham in scoring with nine points in last year’s meeting, will be key to containing that duo of cousins.

“They’re definitely bigger on the inside, but we have a big presence on the inside and I feel like we can do it,” Landreth said. “We can handle the inside, but we have to watch the outside too.”

Graham will be led by Gallinger (17 ppg) and Landreth (10 ppg), who combined for just 11 points last year against Lee. Part of those struggles may have been state tournament jitters and adjusting to the 7,000-plus seat Convocation Center.

“We were nervous last year because we hadn’t been there in so long,” Gallinger said. “It was a good experience for us last year and hopefully it will help us a little bit this year.”

In fact, only four Graham players scored in last year’s game, led by Henry. The G-Girls were within 13-10 after one quarter, but were outscored 22-11 and 13-2 in the next two, and managed just six points in the second half.

“We made a few errors,” Gallinger said. “Like coach said we played with them for the first quarter and a half and then a few errors just caused them to go on a run and we just never got it back.”

Graham watched film of that loss earlier this week, and Landreth quickly saw a fatal error.

“We just need to be stronger, we watched a little bit of that game the other day and we were just so weak with the ball and throwing it around and we were scared, we were intimidated,” Landreth said. “We know what to expect this year. They’re still big and strong, but we can do it.”

Raban said the G-Girls will have to compensate for their lack of size with quickness, and converting the shot opportunities when they come. Mariah Lampert and Ashley Simpson are other Graham competitors that will see plenty of floor time today.

“We’re kind of expecting them to play man, they’re a lot bigger than us so we’re going to try to step it up on them and use our quickness and try to get to the basket that way,” Raban said. “Where we’re small, we’re going to spread the perimeter and draw them out and hopefully we can knock down some shots to get them back in their zone.”

Controlling the tempo and the ball will be key for Graham, which is 7-4 since a midseason three-game losing streak pushed the G-Girls below .500.

“We’re about the same as last year. We’re quick, we don’t have much size so we’ve got to play a pretty flawless game,” Raban said. “We can’t go up and have silly turnovers and we’ve got to play smart basketball.

“We’ve got to take care of every possession we have and value it. We can’t let them force us into turnovers and shoot easy baskets, we have to make them work for every basket they do get.

“We just have to play under-control basketball and see what we can do.”

—Contact Brian Woodson

at bwoodson@bdtonline.com