Two of the area’s top girls basketball teams will be on display Monday night when top-ranked Brandywine and No. 4-ranked St. Joseph square off in the Bears’ Den in a battle of undefeated teams.

The Bobcats, now 13-0 and atop the Class C state rankings, face an undefeated (Class B) Bears team, which picked up its 12th win of the season Friday night.

Brandywine coach Josh Hood knows that by playing St. Joseph at this time of the year, it will help his team prepare for what he hopes is another long tournament run.

“It’s exciting this late in the year with what we lost to graduation to be 13-0,” he said. “To graduate that caliber of talent the last couple of years and to still be undefeated is a testament to our program and how hard these girls work.

“The atmosphere should be great. There are not a lot of games on Monday night, so I think there will be a good crowd there. Obviously they are a great team. They haven’t had any close games except the South Bend (Ind.) St. Joe game. All this does is help us prepare for the post season.”

The Bobcats are led by the area’s leading scorer, senior guard Carlie Newman. Newman became Brandywine’s all-time leading scorer last Thursday in the Bobcats’ win over Cassopolis.

Newman surpassed the late Leonard Drake as she pumped in 24 points and now has 1,332 for her career.

Newman will be looking for help from classmate Madison Pellow and junior point guard Mackenzie Shelton. All three played on Brandywine’s Final Four team two years ago and have the Bobcats within a few games of winning another Lakeland Conference championship.

St. Joseph has great balance with all five starters able to score from both outside and inside.

Brandywine will have to contain sisters Erika and LeAnne Priebe, along with Lindsay Peirce, Jaz Williams and Christina Valentine.

“They look for mismatches,” Hood said. “We have to have all five girls playing solid defense. We have to stop their penetration first and foremost. We talked this weekend at practice that we have to stop their vertical penetration. It hurt us last year and again over the summer.

“They are good at mixing up their presses, so we are going to have to handle their pressure. Our younger girls are not use to playing in that type of environment, so they are going to have to step up. We are going to have to be physical. All five of their girls are capable of shooting a three or posting you up. A lot of times they intimidate their opponents with their pressure and physical play. We have to make their physicality.”

The Bobcats are in the middle of a stretch of games against quality opponents. While it means playing at another level, it also has helped Brandywine prepare for tonight’s contest.

“Going to Mendon and Cassopolis, two tough places to play, should help us get ready for St. Joe.” Hood said. “To go to Edwardsburg and get a win and then go to Mendon and Cass and get wins I think shows how much our younger girls have grown up.”

Tip-off for tonight’s contest is set for 7:15 p.m.