The Farmers (5-5 district; 19-8 overall) have secured a playoff spot for the second year in a row with the third seed from the district. The first opponent will be the Irving MacArthur Cardinals (11-3 district; 17-7 overall) tonight at Byron Nelson High School at 7:30 p.m.

With the single elimination tournament format, a loss means the Farmers are out of the playoffs, just like last year.

“It’s win or go home,” head coach Gary Collier said. “Last year, we lost the first game of the playoffs. So hopefully we can go farther this year.”

Because the Farmers got the third seed in the playoffs, they are playing a second-seeded team whom Collier has had some experience with and knows what to expect.

“I played them at my other school,” Collier said. “We played them before but I haven’t had any games with them in the last couple of years. I’ve seen them play. I went to see them play Saturday, they played in a warm-up game.

“They’re really guard-oriented. They’re kind of small; speedy guards. They’re gonna try to shoot a lot of shots over you and we’re probably going to play a zone on defense.”

Collier has high expectations for the teams, even with the last district loss against the Marcus last Tuesday, 54-48.

“I think we’ll win, I think we’ve been playing well, even the games we lost,” Collier said. “We lost to Marcus, we played well, but we just didn’t get some shots down the end stretch, but I think it’ll go well for us.”

Collier said the team is working hard to make it far in the playoffs, and plan to play harder and work tougher for the win. The team has a good arrangement of guards and big guys on the inside, making them stronger. Collier said a weakness they’re working on is being consistent.

“We’re working on zone, preparing for the zone, and that’s good because we have a lot of teams that play zone in our district, so it’s something we’re very comfortable with,” Collier said. “Hopefully [the team has] gotten a lot tougher. Hopefully they play hard, and they have. That’s kind of how I played the game and that’s how I try to coach them. I’m optimistic and I think we’ve got a chance to go pretty far in the playoffs.”

Student tickets for tonight’s game are $3 and adult admission is $5.