The Johnstown boys and Bishop Guilfoyle girls basketball teams have been nearly perfect this season.

The two Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference section winners have two losses between them – one apiece.

Tonight, both the Trojans and Lady Marauders will face the teams that beat them as the LHAC crowns its boys and girls champions during a doubleheader at Richland High School.

The Section 2-winning Westmont Hilltop girls will play Section 1 Bishop Guilfoyle, the defending Class A state champion, at 6 p.m. In the boys game, Section 2 Johnstown and Section 1 Forest Hills square off in the boys game at approximately 8 p.m.

Johnstown is the LHAC’s defending boys champion, and Bishop Guilfoyle is the reigning girls champ after both won last year’s LHAC title games.

The Trojans are ready for the rematch with Forest Hills

“Absolutely,” Johnstown coach Neil Cobaugh said. “Any time you’re facing the team that gave you your lone blemish, especially with the championship on the line, our kids are looking forward to it. We’ll see if we can come out on the winning end this time.”

The Rangers surprised the Trojans with their rebounding ability in their first meeting, a 67-62 victory in Sidman on Jan. 19.

“We hit the boards very hard offensively in that game and I don’t think they expected that,” Forest Hills coach Lance McGough said. “We kept the tempo slow. We worked our offense and took a lot of time off the clock. We tried to hold them at bay. The less touches they have the better it is for us.”

Not surprisingly, Cobaugh wants to do some things differently this time.

“We have to eliminate some of the fundamental mistakes that we made and give more effort on the defensive end and on the glass,” he said. “We also have to eliminate turnovers on the offensive end. We just have to play our tempo.”

Johnstown, the defending District 6 Class AAA champion, brings a 19-1 mark into the conference title game.

“I feel their press is probably what sets them apart from everybody else,” added McGough, whose team is 18-4. “They’ll press you the whole game. If you can limit your turnovers, that keeps you in the game. I thought we were very effective taking care of the ball. We did all those things right and we still needed overtime to win. It wasn’t an easy victory.”

The Trojans have a balanced lineup with 6-foot-2 junior guard Quentin Brandon (14.8 points a game), 6-2 junior forward Alkwan Williams (13.5), 6-5 junior forward Dwight Andrews (12.3) and 6-4 junior forward Isaiah Haselrig (11.8) all averaging in double digit scoring. Williams pulls down 10.1 rebounds a game, and Haselrig averages 8.7 boards and 3 blocked shots a game. Brandon (5.1 assists a game), 5-9 sophomore guard Philip Madison (4.4 assists a game) and Andrews (3.7 assists a game) are playmakers.

Forest Hills features a pair of 1,000-point scorers in its lineup. Luke Gallaher, a 6-0 senior guard, has 1,830 career points and averages approximately 25 a game this season. Tanner Thomas, a 6-4 senior forward, scored his 1000th point this week. Thomas averages a double-double with about 16 points and 11 rebounds a game.

“It’s not just two guards or two big men doing the scoring,” McGough said. “It’s an inside-outside combination. If they try to do something on the inside (defensively), we have someone on the outside. Tanner works for his points. Luke, above all the other years, his shooting outside is just incredible. He has pinpoint accuracy. Last year he was more of a driver. He has added so much to his game because he is such a threat from the outside.

“They’re going to get 15 or 20 points a game for me. But we have legitimate kids around these kids. They’re not the only ones who can score for us. We have three or four kids who can put up 10 points a game if they get their shots.”

The girls game also will be a rematch.

Westmont Hilltop edged Bishop Guilfoyle 48-44 at home on Jan. 17. That Hilltoppers victory snapped Bishop Guilfoyle’s 48-game winning streak that extended over parts of three seasons and two Class A state title wins. The Marauders have won 59 of 60 games entering tonight’s contest and are 21-1 this season.

“The first time we played them, everything fell into place,” Westmont Hilltop coach Jodi Hillegass said. “We played, I don’t want to say the perfect game, but we did everything we needed to do. We’re going to have to do that again (tonight).”

Bishop Guilfoyle leading scorer Halee Adams is a 5-7 sophomore guard-forward who started on the state title team as a freshman.

“Adams is going to get her points, we know that,” Hillegass said. “We just need to play good help-line defense and rebound.”

Sophomore Elyssa Ehredt is a 5-7 forward who is a presence inside. Senior Kelsey Livoti is a 5-11 standout who can contribute inside and out, and 5-8 sophomore Devin Stessney is another key player.

Hilltop’s Gina Rievel, a 5-2 junior point guard, netted 18 points in the win over Guilfoyle. Guard Erin Rodgers had 14 points in that game, and 5-11 senior Alyssa Yewcic scored 12 against the Lady Marauders.

Overall, Yewcic is a 1,000-point scorer who averages a team-best 17.8 points and 8.5 rebounds a game. Rodgers averages 10 points a game. Rievel scores 8.9 points a game and has 3.2 assists per contest. Paige Lamberson scores 6.5 a night, and Brittany Davis averages 5.2 a game for 17-4 Westmont Hilltop.

Notes: Johnstown defeated Central Cambria 70-41 in last year’s LHAC boys title game. Bishop Guilfoyle’s girls defeated Bishop McCort 56-33 for the conference championship. ... The Trojans won the LHAC championship game in 2004, 2006 and 2010. Forest Hills shared the title with Bishop McCort in 1994 prior to a title game being played. ... This will be Bishop Guilfoyle’s fourth consecutive trip to the LHAC girls final. Guilfoyle won last year and was runner-up to Bishop McCort in 2008  and 2009. ... Westmont’s girls won four consecutive LHAC title games from 2004 through 2007.