COQUILLE — Last winter, Coquille girls basketball coach Jennifer Sproul took three of her returning players — Emily Usselman, Kalei Libby and Cheyenne Sherbondy — to the Class 3A state tournament.

She wanted them to see what it was like, hoping to inspire them to work harder to get to the tournament this year.

Now Coquille is one step away, hosting Oregon Episcopal on Friday for a berth in this year’s state tournament.

If Coquille wins, Sproul will look back at the trip last winter as a great investment in her program.

“That trip was huge for us,” she said. “They were up there and they saw teams that they felt they were just as good as.”

The Red Devils saw Westside Christian, the team that eliminated them from the playoffs, win a tournament game. They had a chance to soak in the atmosphere.

“The state tournament — there’s nothing like that,” Sproul said. “If you’re playing in it, it’s a great memory.

“We had a great time hanging out, but the whole time, they wanted to be a part of it. They haven’t stopped talking about it.”

Usselman said the trip provided positive motivation.

“It gave me incentive to get back this year,” she said.

She and the others have shared many stories from the tournament with their teammates.

“It was a big adrenaline rush,” said Libby of watching teams play on the grand stage in front of big crowds. “It seemed like it would be so much fun to be one of those teams.

“This year, we’re going.”

Coquille put itself in a great position to earn a tournament berth by beating Myrtle Point for the Sunset Conference tournament title on Saturday.

While the league’s top two seeds host playoff games, Myrtle Point, as the No. 2 seed, probably faces the tougher challenge, with Santiam Christian, another top-10 team and the second-place finisher in the PacWest Conference.

Oregon Episcopal was the fourth-place team in the Lewis & Clark League.

That doesn’t mean Friday’s game will be easy for the Red Devils.

Before Wednesday’s practice, Sproul encouraged her team to remember that all squads in the playoffs are good.

The Aardvarks rely heavily on point guard Carling Leon.

“Everything goes through her — offensively or defensively,” Sproul said.

So the Red Devils will focus their efforts on stopping Leon, though not through any special defenses unless absolutely necessary.

“We’ve relied on playing great team defense,” Sproul said.

If that isn’t working, the Red Devils might use a zone with one player focusing on Leon to force someone else on Oregon Episcopal’s team to beat them.

“We have to play really good defense,” said Libby, adding that the Red Devils did that in conference tournament wins over Gold Beach and Myrtle Point last week. “We need to keep up what we’re doing now.”

One thing Sproul quickly learned about Oregon Episcopal is that the Red Devils don’t want to get in a free-throw contest Friday. The Aardvarks shot 81 percent from the line as a team this year.

On the other hand, a positive about the style of play used by Aardvarks is that they like to run.

“They’re up-tempo,” Sproul said. “I was glad to hear that.”

Coquille plays its best basketball when it pushes the pace, converting fast-break opportunities and forcing turnovers with its pressure defense.

“We have to run,” said Usselman. “Running is going to help a lot. We need to push the ball as fast as we can.”

One thing that might hamper the Red Devils in that area this week is a bout of illness that hit the team — primarily with the younger players.

On Tuesday, only six players were able to practice, though all but one worked out Wednesday.

“It’s scary,” Sproul said, referring not just to the amount of players who were ill, but the nature of the worst stuff going around.

“I had it myself,” she said. “The first day, you feel like someone’s beaten you with a stick over your whole body. The second day, it’s just the cough. The third day, it’s better.”

One of Coquille’s strengths this year has been its deep bench.

In addition to Usselman and Libby, seniors Lea Price, Katlyn Shaw, Laurie Breuer and Katy Pflaum and sophomore Mary Jo Pflaum make up the primary rotation, with Sherbondy and freshmen Courtney Davis, Allison Cook and Christie Andy available to come in and help when needed.

“We pride ourselves on having a great bench,” Sproul said. “All of a sudden, we didn’t have a bench last night.”

Sproul was encouraged by Wednesday’s practice and by the way the illness seems to last just a short time.

“As long as we can all be here Friday and be healthy, I feel we have a great chance,” she said.