Memorial girls basketball coach Bill Cronin prides himself on assembling tough non-district schedules.

So when the Mustangs were slow out of the gate this season, neither Cronin nor his players panicked.

Eight district wins later, the Mustangs have assured themselves another postseason berth and – perhaps inadvertently – performed a gutcheck in the process.

Memorial (14-18 overall, 8-5 district) enters Tuesday night’s game at MacArthur (14-10, 8-5) tied for third in District 19-5A.

Tuesday's winner earns the district's third spot for the postseason tournament, the loser the fourth spot.

Memorial clinched its playoff berth, its sixth in seven years, by defeating rival Stratford Friday night.

"We played some good teams early," Cronin said. "But I never lost faith. I knew we had a good bunch."

Point guard Lara Lapin has 116 assists and, more amazingly, an un-guard-like 129 rebounds to lead the team for the second straight year.

Ashley Sunderhaft is scoring a team-high 12 points a game; freshman Kirby McDaniel adds about 10.

Those numbers were especially useful after senior Brittany Clayton was lost early in the season to ACL injury. In part because of that and a grueling non-district scheduled that included North Shore, Katy and state-ranked Corpus Christi Carroll, Memorial limped to a 6-13 non-district record.

Clayton later attempted a brief comeback but will miss the rest of the season.

"When they knew she wouldn't be there, they (the rest of the team) didn't think they'd be good," Cronin said. "They just had to see they would be for themselves."

The season took off after two close losses and a blowout at a Christmas tournament in College Station. Memorial came home and played two close games against co-district leader Eisenhower, which is tied with Nimitz entering the final night of the regular season.

Junior Kirby Sinclair took Clayton's lineup and has performed admirably. Junior post Jennifer Edwards has performed well as a backup scorer, hitting key shots in recent games against Stratford, Spring Woods and Northbrook.

"This is probably one of the smarter teams I've coached," Cronin said. "They don't make a lot of mistakes and the turnovers have been minimal. There are some times they try to do too much, but most of the time they play within themselves and know what they're doing. Turnovers don't fluster them."

Regardless of Tuesday night's outcome, Memorial and MacArthur have tall orders just to win one or two games in the tournament. Area powers Bellaire and Madison will finish in the top two in 20-5A, against which 19-5A teams will open, and beyond them looms 2007 state runner-up Cy-Fair.

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