The Warrenton girls basketball team ((18-8) will meet GAC opponent St. Charles West (22-6) for a third time this season on Tuesday at 7:45 p.m., this time with much higher stakes.

The Warriors advanced to their first-ever Class 4 sectional playoff appearance by knocking off Kirksville 50-48 on Friday in the District 8 Championship.

Now they will attempt to avenge a pair of losses against a team that was rather dominant in the first two meetings. Warrenton fell 60-35 on the road Jan. 9, before closing the gap in a 62-45 defeat at home on Feb. 2.

St. Charles West reached this point by taking down another GAC foe in St. Charles, which had lost just one game all season. St. Charles West won 52-43.

Warrenton's primary bugaboo against St. Charles West has been the inability to match up with 6-foot-3 post presence Kacy Eschweiler, who is averaging just shy of 20 points per game. She has been particularly effective against the Warriors, who give up a few inches to her in the paint. Eschweiler scored 26 points in the first meeting, before being limited to 14 the second time around.

Each time, St. Charles West has had the same three contributors net double-digit scoring. Emma Poindexter is averaging 8.5 points, and Jessie Schmidt is chipping 8.3 per game this season. Both have surpassed their averages against Warrenton.

Poindexter has been especially dangerous from behind the three-point line, knocking down 39-percent of her 106 attempts. Megan Graves, averaging 5.9 points, also excels from beyond the arc with 37 percent of her 86 tries being successful.

Eschweiler has been a leader on the boards for St. Charles West, with 9.6 rebounds per night. Natalie Otten is next at 3.9 boards.

Schmidt is the assist leader with 2.54, while Poindexter leads with 1.4 steals.

St. Charles West has a pair of common losses, having fallen to Washington by 18 and lost to St. Charles during both regular-season meetings.

Interestingly, while Warrenton limited its losses to seven this season — all of them were by at least 11 points and all came against ranked teams. The Warriors have been stronger than usual in finishing close games, exhibiting that on Friday by holding after a Kirksville team that rallied from 12 down with 2:00 left to tie the score.

Part of the Warriors' late-season success can be attributed to the rapid maturity of the freshmen who were asked to play a substantial role. Freshman guards Ashtyn Dixon and Rylie Cox have supplied excellent defensive pressure and bring a spark of quickness to the floor. Cox was critical down the stretch against Kirksville, grabbing a pair of game-saving steals.

In terms of scoring, sophomore Jenny Jansen and senior Hannah Sutton are averaging just around 15 points per game, with Jansen grabbing a team-best 10.2 rebounds.

Senior Kylie Toebben is next in scoring with 5.7 points.

The winner of Tuesday's matchup will face the winner of Miller Career Academy (17-10) vs. Incarnate Word (25-2) on Saturday at 2:45 p.m. at Francis Howell High School.