ENID — The road doesn’t get any easier for Enid High School as the Plainsmen and Pacers head to Oklahoma City to face Bishop McGuiness in a girls-boys doubleheader tonight.

The Plainsmen (5-6), ranked 20th in 6A according to OKRankings.com, are coming into tonight’s contest after a narrow 51-48 loss at Ponca City Friday.

The Plainsmen were outscored 7-2 in the final 3:48 of Friday’s loss to the Wildcats and were clinging to a 48-47 edge with 1:17 remaining but let the game slip away when Ponca City’s Brent Wilson and Zac Spice converted a pair of free throws and junior forward Mitchell Foote’s desperation 3-pointer fell short at the buzzer.

The Plainsmen, who have lost three of their last four games, will have to regroup against one of the perennial powers of Oklahoma prep basketball when they visit Bishop McGuiness tonight.

The Fighting Irish boys have been to five straight 4A state championships, having won the state title in 1989, 1999-2001 and 2006-2008. This season Bishop McGuiness has returned to 5A where they currently hold down the No. 5 ranking.

But the Fighting Irish are returning home after dropping their last two contests, a 56-48 setback at Stillwater on Jan. 11, and a 77-76 loss at 4th-ranked Northwest Classen Friday.

Bishop McGuiness, under 13-year head coach Tondrell Durham, are led by a veteran squad with 6-8 junior forward Matthew Christian-sen and fellow junior, 6-4 Joe Edmonds providing a strong inside-outside presence that will challenge the Plainsmen.

Junior Mitchell Foote and senior Alex Patterson lead the Plainsmen in scoring this season.

On the girls side, the task may be equally daunting tonight as the 15th-ranked Pacers (7-4) look to continue their strong play following their 45-32 Centennial Conference win over Ponca City Friday.

It was the Pacers’ third win in their last four contests, which includes a runner-up finish at the Skiatook Invitational.

“I told the girls I’m as happy as could be,” Pacers head coach Layne Jones said after the Pacers victory over Ponca City, singling out the Pacers’ defensive effort and the play of Rani Melvin for praise.

“We had a really good effort on the floor. We played good defense and we got multiple contributions from people on offense,” Jones added.

Melvin has been coming on strong as the season has progressed and has provided a second-half spark for the Pacers, including scoring all 15 of her points in the second half against Ponca City.

The Pacers have been particularly strong on defense this season, holding all but four of their opponents under 40 points.

The defense likely will receive a strong test tonight against 2nd-ranked (5A) Bishop McGuiness (13-1), which has been held to under 40 points only twice this season, including  its most recent victory, a 39-27 decision over Northwest Classen Friday. Among their 13 victories this season, the Fighting Irish girls have scored more than 50 points in all but one win (versus Northwest Classen) and have poured in more than 60 points in six of their victories.

Like the McGuiness boys, the Fighting Irish girls return experience this season with four-year starters, seniors Caroline Cameron (5-10) and Alexa Lienhard’s (6-0) size and experience presenting matchup problems for their opponents.

The Pacers will look to sophomore Courtney Chelf and Melvin to offset some of that advantage.

Following its games tonight, Enid heads to the Deer Creek Bruce Gray Invitational tournament.

The Pacers open the tournament with a 7 p.m. tipoff Thursday against host Deer Creek while the Plainsmen open against Western Heights at 8:30 p.m.