For the fourth consecutive week, the Enid Plainsmen will be facing a ranked opponent, when they face in No. 10 Choctaw tonight at the Central National Bank Center. The difficulty of the schedule has not changed for the Plainsmen, but neither has their goal: to get better every time they step onto the court. Tonight, the Plainsmen (0-3) hope to see their hard work come to fruition in their transition defense. Head coach Paul Duncan said his team has been working on that phase of their game for a few weeks. “I think that’s been getting a little bit better,” he said. But Duncan said the transition defense comes with a trade-off. “You can send several up near the offensive glass and get the offensive rebound,” Duncan said. “But if you do that and don’t get the offensive rebound then they get numbers going the other way.” Duncan said with the games becoming faster and offenses putting up more points, the transition defense has become an important area. “There is a premium on the transition defense and getting the ball stopped and getting kids to run both ways,” he said. The improvement of their transition defense has come just in time,too. The Yellowjackets (5-1) have a potent offense offense that has gotten used to putting a lot of points on the board. To counter their offense, Duncan said the Plainsmen also will bring their defense to the outer perimeter of the offensive zone. “They can score because they can really shoot the ball,” he said. “We’re going to guard them on the 3-point line and force them off of there.” The Yellow Jackets averaged 70 points per game through their first four regular season games. But in the last two games, the offense has slowed down, posting an average of 57 points —a 19 percent drop. But attacking their offense is just one item on the to-do list for the Plainsmen as they search for their first win of the season. Looking at their own offense, Duncan said the focus is taking care of the basketball and driving the ball up the court. In their its three contests, Enid has averaged 45 points per game and has only posted more than 43 points once—their home-opener against Putnam City West. Duncan said his offense will look to put more points on the board, somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-60 points. “We’re going to try and get up offensively and get the ball up the floor a little quicker,” Duncan said. Pacers excited to play again Pacers head coach Gerrett Spears said his team has no problem focusing in on tonight’s game against Choctaw, despite the winter break being just around the corner. “These girls have been really good about (focusing), actually,” Spears said. Spears said his team is just excited to play both tonight and during the upcoming tournament Enid hosts during the winter break. With week-long intermissions between games, the Pacers are ready to hit the floor to get their first win of the season. Like the Plainsmen, the Pacers (0-3) also will face a Choctaw team with a strong offense. The No. 3 Lady Jackets started out hot on a 4-0 run to begin their season, averaging around 67 points per game. But in their last two contests, both losses, they averaged 37, more than a 50 percent drop. Spears said this was due to the team’s best offensive player, Bailey Golden, being away on vacation. However, she will make it to tonight’s game to play the Pacers, the Pacers coach assured. Talk about timing. However, Spears and the Pacers seem up for the challenge. The head coach talked about the team’s objective of throwing the Choctaw offense off its game.The defense’s plan is not only to limit the number of Choctaw shots, but make sure if they do get a shot off, it’s a bad one. “(Choctaw is) used to being able to do whatever they want to do offensively,” Duncan said. “So we just have to cause them some frustrations when we’re on defense and get them to rush (their shots) a little bit.” Tonight's games, starting with the Pacers at 6 p.m., followed by the Plainsmen at 7:30, can be heard on KGWA (960 AM).