Macon — For Crisp Academy’s Lady Wildcats, this week’s GISA Class A Final Four represents a new site, same familiar situation. For Fullington Academy’s Trojans, both the venue and the position are totally foreign.

Both teams will be at Mercer University — a location where neither has ever played before as until this season the semifinals and finals had been held at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville.

Having been to the semifinal round for the last five years now and winning it all for the last two seasons, the Lady Wildcats, who face Curtis Baptist today at 1 p.m.. are used to the pressure felt at this stage of the season.

The same can’t be said for the Trojans who haven’t made a Final Four appearance since the 2007-08 campaign that ended in a 96-58 loss to First Presbyterian Christian Academy. Their first start comes Friday at 2:30 against Dawson Street.

Predictions of how the two teams will fare also contrast as while coach Gina Mitchell’s Crisp Academy’s girls are heavily favored to eventually clinch a third straight crown, coach Van Bailey’s boys are cast in the role of underdogs.

A brief report on the semifinal contests involving the Lady Wildcats and Trojans follows:

Crisp vs. Curtis Baptist girls

While the Lady Wildcats check in with a 29-2 record that includes victories in their last 20 starts, the Augusta-based Lady Crusaders have done no better than break even (14-14) in 28 outings.

“They play pretty good defense, doing a little bit of it all — the press, man-for-man and zone,” said Mitchell when asked what she considered to be the strength of the Region 1-A champions.

“From what I’ve seen while watching them rally from a double-digit halftime deficit to beat Highland Christian in the opening round of state and from what I’ve been told, they’re very aggressive.

“They’re not very big, but they do have some good guards and as a team like to slow the pace and seem to prefer playing opponents who employ man-for-man defense like we’ll be doing.”

Asked what she considered to be the keys to her team’s chances of prevailing, Mitchell listed three.

“We’ve got to play smart; we’ve got to have a good night defensively, and we have to limit out turnovers. We’ve done a good job in all those areas throughout the season and hopefully that will continue to be the case.”

Queried about the possibility they could be affected by the pressure that some teams feels when pegged as prohibitive favorites, Mitchell said she doesn’t expect that to be a factor in her team’s performance.

“Having been in this situation before, we know what to expect and what can happen if we don’t play well. At the same time, we’re aware we have a good team and realize that if we play up to our capabilities we should win.

“Toward that end, we’re going to keep emphasizing our motto of the last couple of seasons — ‘Respect all; fear none’ — as that’s once again the approach we’re going to be taking into this thing.”

The Crisp-Curtis Baptist winner will return to the Mercer University floor again on Saturday at noon when it battles the winner of today’s 2:30 p.m. clash between Citizens Christian and Georgia Christian.

Should Crisp, which may be without the services of Kayla Childers due to injury, go on to win state for the third year in a row, it would tie the 1974-75, 1975-76 and 1976-77 Lady Wildcats squads for doing likewise. A 2012-13 girls crown would be the sixth in school history.

Fullington vs. Dawson St. boys

In their bid to become almost certainly the first boys team in the history of their school to ever make it to a state championship game, the Region 3-A runner-up Trojans must first get past the Region 4-A champion Wildcats.

From a record standpoint, the teams appear to be about even as Fullington checks into the fray with a 13-10 report card while Dawson Street, which has played an extremely tough schedule, enters at 11-10.

That’s about the only similarity between the two, said Bailey who described the teams as “polar opposites when it comes to what each of us like to do.”

In specifically addressing the Wildcats, Bailey said they’re not very big, but are extremely quick and athletic and remind him of the 2010 Bethesda Day team that handed the Trojans a 60-50 in the second round of state.

“They love to fast break and how well we defend it will be the major key to our chance of winning and becoming the first boys team I’m aware of that will have played for the championship.”

Seven other Trojan squads, however, have previously advanced to the Final Four.