NEW WAVERLY — To say that this is an important week for the Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs basketball team would be a big understatement.

With the regular season winding down, much is at stake for the New Waverly boys and girls.

While the Bulldogs look to nail down the district’s final playoff spot, the Lady Dogs, already assured of a return trip to the postseason, hope to build momentum for when they tip off their bi-district contest a week from today.

“The atmosphere’s going to be pretty wild,” Bulldogs senior Isaiah Gilliam said of this week’s home games against Anderson-Shiro and Centerville. “It’ll almost be like the playoffs. It’ll be pretty hostile.”

The Bulldogs still have three games left to play in their regular season and they know that a berth in the playoffs can either be secured or lost in the next week and a half.

“It’s looking good in that we still control our own destiny,” New Waverly boys basketball coach Theo Bogney said. “We’ve got a couple of injuries and we’re going to be a man short, but we have to do a better job of playing as a team.”

Three weeks ago, the Bulldogs were sitting pretty after a 64-51 victory over Centerville, which had them atop District 23-2A with a perfect 5-0 league mark. Since then, the New Waverly boys have hit a bit of a slide, losing three of their past four games to district-leader Trinity (8-1 in district), Onalaska and Crockett (7-2).

“We’ve lost a couple of games that we shouldn’t have lost. When you lose some games, you have to build off of it at practice,” Gilliam said. “Our main focus is to get better on defense. There’s been a few areas of our defense that has cost us some games.”

“We have some stuff that we’ve been working on that we have to iron out. We have to come together where we are and build from that, so we’re trying to turn a corner and get better,” Bogney said. “We have to do a better job of taking care of the ball and our defensive discipline is still a work in progress.”

The Bulldogs currently sit in third place at 6-3, just two games ahead of Centerville (4-5) for the district’s final playoff spot.

Following tonight’s game against Anderson-Shiro, New Waverly will host Centerville on Friday night.

Pending today’s results, Friday’s game could either eliminate the Tigers from playoff contention or put them right back in the mix for third place, along with the Bulldogs.

If the Bulldogs were to fall to Centerville, they would need to pick up a win at Trinity to close out the regular season. But another victory over Centerville would erase any doubts and the need for tiebreakers.

“If we slip up against Centerville, then the Trinity game becomes a must-win,” Bogney said, “but we just want to go ahead and take care of business, so we won’t have to worry about that other stuff.”

As far as the Lady Bulldogs are concerned, they’re already in the postseason and will play Winnie East Chambers in the bi-district round early next week.

With just one game left to go, tonight’s regular-season finale against Anderson-Shiro, the Lady Bulldogs hope to get something going that will put them in the right direction.

The New Waverly girls are locked into the district’s third-place spot, holding a two-game cushion over fourth-place Groveton.

“We’ve got a couple of goals we set at the beginning of the season and one of those was to finish the regular season with 20 wins,” Lady Dogs coach Eldridge McAdams said. “We’re 19-9 right now and we can get that 20th win tomorrow.”

The Lady Bulldogs have been up and down this season due to injuries and from being a young team.

Senior guard Alex Abbott, who is a big part of the New Waverly girls’ defense, has been out of action the past three weeks because of a sprained ankle.

“We’ve got a lot of senior leaders, but we’ve still got a very young team. Eight of our players are underclassmen. Those girls have gotten experience,” McAdams said.

“We’re hoping to get Alex back soon. She’s missed the last six weeks because of an ankle. She’s a key part to our press and our defense.”

In recent weeks, the Lady Dogs have improved their shooting and that’s helped them make their push for the playoffs.

“Over the last four games, we’ve been shooting the ball really well,” McAdams said. “We had a few games where we shot 15 or 16 percent. In the last few games, we’ve been shooting 40 percent and had one game where we shot 50 percent. That’s good for us because we like to have around 75 shots a game.

“It’s been exciting. What we do, our biggest opponent is ourselves. We just need to work on doing all the little things right.”

With just one game to go before getting into playoff mode, the Lady Bulldogs want to hit on certain areas and build a little momentum.

“This game means a lot,” Lady Dogs senior guard Myeisha Williams said. “It’s senior night and it’ll be my last game at home, but we also just want to play well.”