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Kilbourne’s Lauren Barnhart brings the ball up the court against Hilliard Darby’s Annie Hilditch. The Wolves open the Division I district tournament Saturday, Feb. 18, against 11th-seeded New Albany. Buy This Photo

The Worthington Kilbourne High School girls basketball team had seven days to prepare for its Division I district tournament opener, but coach Steve Palmer isn’t sure that is enough time to get the Wolves’ offense on track.

Kilbourne plays 11th-seeded New Albany in the first round of the tournament at 7:45 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, at Hilliard Davidson. The winner plays 10th-seeded Upper Arlington or Mount Vernon in the second round at 7:45 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22, at Davidson.

The Wolves have not played New Albany or Mount Vernon this season but lost twice to UA in OCC-Central Division play —46-32 on Dec. 9 and 53-22 on Jan. 24.

In the first loss to UA, senior guard Kayla Pack led the Wolves with 15 points and senior guard Marissa Elliott scored 11. In the rematch, Pack had 11 points.

Both New Albany and UA finished the regular season 15-5. Mount Vernon is 6-14 and has lost nine of its last 12 games.

“I don’t think having the time off helps us,” said Palmer, whose team is 5-15. “If you’re a team that’s going to go deep in the tournament, maybe you don’t mind a couple of days off. But we’re struggling down here at the end of the stretch. I don’t think you can revamp that much in just (seven) days.”

Kilbourne was averaging 40.4 points through 17 games but totaled just 34 points in its next two, a 36-17 loss to Davidson on Feb. 3 and a 47-17 loss to Central Crossing on Feb. 7. The Wolves closed the regular season with a 47-24 loss to Dublin Coffman on Feb. 10.

Central Crossing is seeded eighth in the district.

“The good news is we held (Central Crossing) to just 24 points (in the first half) and we were only down by 12 points in the first half,” Palmer said. “But you have to score better than 12 points.

“If we just had a decent offensive output, it would’ve been a close game. But we’re just struggling to find good shots and, when we do a good look, we don’t knock it down. It’s a double whammy.”

Palmer believes his team matches up well against New Albany, which is averaging 48.5 points but is 2-5 when scoring fewer than 40.

The Eagles are led by junior guard Hannah Scipio, who was averaging 5.8 assists and shooting 41.4 percent from 3-point range through 18 games, and 6-foot-3 junior post player Kyasia Duling, who was shooting 51.9 percent from the floor and averaging 10.8 rebounds through 18 games.

“One of the reasons why we chose them is they’re not scoring in the 50s, 60s or 70s,” Palmer said. “Hopefully we can mix some things up on them and keep it a low-scoring affair.”

Kilbourne has scored 50 or more points three times this season, defeating Westerville Central 56-55 on Dec. 28, beating Briggs 56-33 on Jan. 30 and losing to Coffman 58-50 on Jan. 6. Central and Briggs are a combined 6-34, but Coffman is 18-2.

“I don’t know if it’s a lack of concentration or what,” Palmer said. “We’re getting a lot of the same looks we were getting earlier in the season. But for some reason, we’re not scoring (as much lately). We may have forced a couple of bad shots, but not to the point where you end up with just 17 points.”

The Wolves finished 1-13 in the OCC-Central, placing eighth behind Coffman (13-1), UA (12-2), Central Crossing (11-3), Davidson (7-7), Thomas Worthington (6-8), Hilliard Darby (4-10) and Westland (2-12).

Coffman is seeded fifth in the district and Central Crossing is seeded eighth.

•Among the keys for Thomas in its district tournament opener is to contain Zanesville senior Kailee Howe.

The Cardinals face the 12th-seeded Blue Devils at 7:45 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, at Pickerington Central.

Howe, a 5-9 guard who has signed with Morehead State, scored her 1,000th career point in a 36-27 victory over DeSales on Dec. 30. She had 18 points and 10 rebounds in a 56-47 loss to Marietta on Feb. 8, as Zanesville fell to 15-4.

“I know they have some pretty good guards and they like to attack the basket,” coach Laurie Barr said of the Blue Devils. “Playing a solid guard-oriented team isn’t going to be anything new for us. Zanesville may have a slightly different style than what we see in central Ohio, but we’ll be ready.

“Three of our teams in the OCC-Central (Coffman, Central Crossing and UA) were seeded in the top 10 of the district. That shows the type of competition we have to play day in and day out.”

Thomas concluded the regular season with a 43-36 loss to Central Crossing on Feb. 10 to drop to 8-11. The loss was the Cardinals’ sixth in their past nine games. After losing five of six games between Jan. 6 and 27, they defeated Westland 54-40 on Feb. 3 and Darby 38-25 on Feb. 7 before falling to Central Crossing.

The Thomas-Zanesville winner will play Davidson or Westerville South in the second round at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22, at Pickerington Central. The Cardinals split with Davidson in league play, winning 45-40 on Dec. 9 and losing 62-46 on Jan. 24, but have not played Zanesville or South this season.

“Getting the opportunity to play some different competition is nice for us,” Barr said. “You aren’t as familiar with them, so that’s definitely a downside. But sometimes it’s hard to beat a team two or three times in a season. It’s hard for us to play teams in our league over and over and over since we battle on a regular basis.”

Davidson is 10-10 overall and is led by junior point guard Lauren Bates and senior forward Katie Dymek, both of whom scored 17 points in the latter contest against Thomas. Senior guard Kim Hoerauf led the Cardinals with 13 points, while junior guard Frannie Frazier and junior forward Mariana Bonilla each scored 11. Frazier had 15 points in the first matchup with the Wildcats.

South is 10-10 overall and is led by senior guards Erica Aiello and Morgan Neighbors.