HAYTI – When Hamlin and Groton meet in the opening round of the Class A State Boys’ Basketball Tournament, it might come as a mild case of deja vu.

That’s because the same two teams met in the season-opener a little more than three months ago.

And while Hamlin was victorious in that meeting (a 58-36 decision in Groton), make no mistake – this is a brand new meeting that is set for 6 p.m. (MDT) Thursday at Summit Arena at The Monument in Rapid City.

“We played a long time ago and both teams have changed since then,” said Hamlin coach Todd Neuendorf.

Hamlin enters the tournament as the No. 2 seed sporting a 20-3 record and coming off a third place finish in the state tournament a year ago. However, that resume won’t mean much when the two teams step on the floor.

“It’s as good a State A tournament as you can ask for,” Neuendorf said. “I look at the field and we’re a two playing a seven and they have four losses and we have three. That tells you how good this tournament is.”

Regardless, the Chargers will rely on the things that brought them success throughout the season, namely sharing the ball, sharing credit and playing solid defense.

“We’ve really been defending and really sharing the ball,” Neuendorf said. “The other night against Hanson we had 33 assists and four turnovers. When you can have an assist-to-turnover ratio like that … that makes a coach pretty happy.”

Offensively, the Chargers sport plenty of of firepower, as well, with the likes of Easton Neuendorf (15.9 points per game) and Tyson Stevenson (15.2 ppg) leading the way. But Hamlin’s scoring threats don’t end there.

“I think we’ve got five guys that are capable at all times of being our leading scorer,” Coach Neuendorf said. “We’ve had that throughout the year; one guy will have 25 tonight and a different guy will have 25 tomorrow night. All five guys can shoot from the outside and get to the rim. It’s a really dynamic group.”

Plus, Neuendorf added, every player that sees the court has a pretty high basketball IQ, which allows the Chargers to make in-game adjustments without needing to wait for a quarter or halftime break to talk anything over at length.

“It’s a unique bunch. They really know the game,” Neuendorf said. “You have a lot of kids that are good basketball players and good athletes, and they might not know the game. These kids are able to make a lot of in-game adjustments in timeouts. … They will also say, hey if we change this right here, it’s going to work, and we listen to that.”

Neuendorf said his team is playing its best when his players can play fast and free in the open court.

“When we play fast and we can play uptempo, and kids can play rhythm basketball, the kids are pretty good,” he said.

The Chargers average better than 70 points per game on the offensive end, but Neuendorf knows they’ll need more than offense to bring home major hardware.

“It comes down to defense and whether you can guard,” he said. “That gets on and off the bus. Sometimes shooting percentage doesn’t get off the bus.”

The Chargers are looking forward to the challenge that lies ahead of them.

“It’s what the state tournament is about,” Neuendorf said. “Good teams and good players playing each other in the culminating event.”