ROLE PLAYER — St. Thomas Aquinas senior Jordan Watkins (3) is one of several STA role players who have been crucial to the team’s rise to No. 1 and a repeat berth in the Class 2A finals today. —Photo by John Lenz/Daily Star

LAFAYETTE-The way St. Thomas Aquinas coach Errol Gauff sees it, there's no such thing as a repeat for his Falcons.

Gauff would gladly take two Class 2A state championships in a row, a feat his top-ranked Falcons (36-1) will shoot for Saturday night at the Top 28 Tournament against Ferriday (26-7) at 6:30 p.m. in the Cajun Dome.

STA already has the first one after defeating Madison for last year's state championship. But in Gauff's view, the book is closed on last year's team. This is a new team, writing a new book.

"That's been our thing - we're not going for a repeat, because we had six seniors who we can never replace from last year's team," Gauff told his Falcons. "You're your own team. You now have to be the aggressor and go after something and find your own identity, just as they did."

The Falcons will try to do that tonight after winning their way into the finals with a methodical 68-47 beat-down of No. 4 seed Many Thursday night. That game followed STA's typical M.O. - overcome a taller, stronger team with quickness and suffocating ball pressure.

In this case, that pressure resulted in 16 Falcon steals and a total of 26 Many turnovers, preventing the Tigers from hurting the Falcons with their 6-6 and 6-4 inside players.

Now comes Ferriday, which won the best game of the Top 28 Tournament so far on Thursday with a 65-64 victory over seventh-seeded Lakeside. In that game, Trojans senior guard Matthew Smith hit the second of two free throws with four seconds to play for the winning margin in a spellbinding game that featured six ties and 13 lead changes.

Ferriday was led by 6-2 senior Montrell Tennessee's 21 points, and he added seven rebounds. Guard Matthew Smith (5-11) scored 15 points and reserve guard Alrion McKeel (5-7) added 12 for the Trojans.

Those quality guards - all three averaged double digits throughout the season - are complemented by 6-6 senior big man Joshua Upchurch and 6-4 junior reserve post Demarco Lewis.

Depth could be an issue, however, as Ferriday played only seven players in the game, and starter Orlando Davis played just three minutes. But the ones the Trojans have are pretty good, Gauff said after watching their semifinal game intently on Thursday.

"Another team with a noticeable size advantage," Gauff noted. "Sometimes (Ferriday coach Kirfred Watkins) played with one big guy, then in the second half, he put both of the big guys in at the same. Against us, I don't know what he'll do, but he's probably licking his chops because he saw how small we were with our interior offense."

What jumped out at Gauff was the Trojans' versatility on both ends of the floor.

"They can get to you in a zone and that 1-3-1 spread out," Gauff said of Ferriday's defensive sets. "(Against Lakeside) Ferriday started in a zone and Lakeside hit the threes. Then they come out in the second quarter and Ferriday goes zone. I'm thinking he probably doesn't want to play man; but now he's adjusted and now he's playing man, and they did a really good job with that, too.

"But then offensively they can play big, or they can play REALLY big when they put both of those guys in. Either way they're big, but they can get even bigger. They can play different ways. We're going really to have to play well Saturday because of what they can do offensively and defensively."

Gauff said Tennessee, who averaged 15.2 points per game in the regular season, is the key player, but Smith is another dangerous veteran senior guard.

"No. 23 (Tennessee), you better know where he is when the ball is shot," Gauff said. "He has such good explosion off the floor and off the rim to get those offensive rebounds, and he's quick getting to the basket. No. 11 (Smith) was tough defensively. No. 25 (Demarcus Taylor, who scored a game-high 28 points) looked like Lakeside's best player, and was making some great offensive moves, but (Smith) was right there a lot of times with him. He was doing it at both ends for Ferriday."

Of course, the Falcons have found only one team capable of offsetting their stellar guard play for far, and that was Class 4A Ellender. Nobody else has really come close, and now it's Ferriday's turn.

Again, depth could be a factor, with both teams playing the finals just two days after the semifinal games. Ferriday used six players for at least 16 minutes and was extended to the utter limit by Lakeside. Starters Smith and Levir Pryor never left the floor while Tennessee was spelled for only one minute.

Gauff used eight players for eight minutes or more and played 12 players in the much easier victory over Many.

Gauff sent his players back to class Friday before returning to Lafayette to soak up the atmosphere at Friday's title games with strict orders to the Falcons to enjoy the moment.

"This is a special event," Gauff said. "We're all caught up as coaches and players in wanting to do your best and win, and I certainly do want to win.

"But I also want to enjoy it and soak it in and let them experience everything that goes on for these two, three days that we have the opportunity to be here," Gauff added. "We're very fortunate, and we want them to enjoy it because there's no guarantees about coming back, or tomorrow or any of that other stuff."