The Nansemond-Suffolk Academy girls’ basketball team looks to carry momentum from Saturday’s conference tournament championship win into Wednesday’s state quarterfinal matchup against St. Margaret’s School.

St. Margaret’s earned the right to face host NSA after defeating Highland School 50-37 on Tuesday.

Lady Saints coach Kim Aston sent one of her assistant coaches to watch the game and scout out the opposition.

“It seems like that their best players are guards and that we should be able to take advantage of them in the post,” Aston said.

Nansemond-Suffolk has been able to get the better of several conference opponents this season due to the powerful presence in the post of junior forward Kelly Hogan and senior center Caroline Hogg.

“I think that how we would approach the game is basically how we would approach Cape Henry (Collegiate School) and Norfolk Christian (School),” Aston said.

The Lady Saints defeated Cape Henry 53-47 on Saturday to claim the Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools tournament title, and a key ingredient to the win was playing strong defense on the Lady Dolphins’ star junior guards — Kennedy Beale and Stephanie Seaman.

Aston used several different players to limit Beale and Seaman. Sophomore guard Abby Herrod was effective guarding Beale, and she also spent some time guarding Seaman along with junior guard Lindsay Knierbein, junior guard Logan Harrell and sophomore guard Sasha Roberts.

Their experience logged in these endeavors could prove to be good preparation for facing St. Margaret’s.

According to MaxPreps.com, leading the Scotties in scoring is sophomore guard Khailan O’Conner. Through 15 games, she was averaging 16.1 points, to go with 4.1 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game. Senior guard Shelby Hill added 12.3 points, 7.9 rebounds and 3.5 steals per game.

The Lady Saints will also be counting offensive production from the guard position.

“Of course, Harper (Birdsong) is going to get her points one way or the other,” Aston said.

Nansemond-Suffolk’s star senior guard led all scorers on Saturday with 28 points.

“If we can get by this first-round opponent, then we should be pretty familiar with everybody else that’s left,” Aston said.

The coach noted that Norfolk Christian could be the Lady Saints’ opponent in the semifinals, though she was not necessarily hoping for this familiar matchup so soon.

“I wish we would have been in opposite sides of the bracket, so if we got to each other, it would be in the championship game,” she said.

Due to inclement weather delays, NSA did not have to play a state quarterfinal game last year. It was slated to face Walsingham Academy, but when the window of time for the game to be played had closed, the Lady Saints ended up being automatically advanced due to having the higher seed.

Aston confirmed that her team is looking forward to playing the quarterfinal this year.

Nansemond-Suffolk (22-3) hosts the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association Division II state quarterfinal at 5:30 p.m.