When the first round of the Section IV, Class C boys basketball tournament ended Wednesday night, Union Springs had achieved one of its two goals.

The first was to improve on last season's 14-6 record. At 15-6, the Wolves are set to tackle their second task: advance past the second round.

No. 7-seed Union Springs takes on No. 2 Elmira Notre Dame in Elmira at 7 p.m. today in the quarterfinals.

Though both teams were their respective division champions and each feature a divisional Most Valuable Player, the Wolves and the Crusaders (17-3) have had their share of differences. While Union Springs has a more balanced offense, Elmira Notre Dame relies on sophomore standout Steve Manning, who scored 18 points in Elmira's 47-31 first-round win over Harpursville Wednesday.

Wolves' coach Tim Darnell says Union Springs will take a team approach to guarding the IAC, Division I MVP.

"Whoever has him, the other guys are going to have to be aware of where he is at all times," he said. "It really shouldn't be the responsibility of just the man assigned to him. We need to play team defense and each guy needs to trust that the other guys are there to help him."

All five Union Springs' starters and its bench can make a contribution on offense. Division III MVP Pat Crowley leads the team in scoring, averaging 12 points-per-game. Bryan McClary, Josh Tratt and Sean Noonan are all hovering around the 10 ppg mark.

"I think it makes it more difficult for teams to guard us," Darnell said. "When you look, all of our scoring is pretty close. We have a lot of guys who do different things that make us more difficult to guard."

Defensively, the Crusaders have been solid all season, giving up 50 or more points just twice this season. They tend to slow down the tempo on offense.

"They play a half-court hard-nosed man-to-man, and they run a motion offense" Darnell said. "They're good at running it; they're a patient team."

The Wolves like to speed things up, so Darnell believes if Union Springs can keep the tempo fast-paced it will help them.

"If the score is in the 50s or 60s it favors us, but if the score is in the 40s it favors them," he said. "They're a very good defensive team but they don't score a lot of points. I think that (an up-tempo game) would take them out of their comfort zone a little bit."

Darnell has a simple formula for the Wolves to be successful.

"We need to value the ball, play solid defense and rebound and we need to execute," he said.

He also believes the Wolves will have to do a better job from the line if they want to advance. In Union Springs' first-round game against 10th-seeded Marathon, the Wolves shot just over 50-percent, but recovered to make 6-of-8 shots in the final minutes to seal the win.

"This (game) could come down to a free-throw shooting contest," Darnell said. "We need to be able to shoot better than we did the other night - 54-percent - that can't happen. If it does, we might not be so lucky."