There are just eight basketball teams left in the MHSAA Division 1 girls basketball playoffs.

Two of them are from rival conferences — the Oakland Activities Association and the Macomb Area Conference – and will meet on Tuesday, March 18 at Calihan Hall on the campus of Detroit Mercy.

The West Bloomfield Lakers (18-8, 8-2 OAA Red) and Ford Falcons (24-2, 9-1 MAC Red) have both dominated at the highest levels this season. The former has taken down White Lake Lakeland, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, Grand Blanc and Clarkston during their playoff run. The latter has disposed of Sterling Heights Stevenson, Fraser, Dakota and Cousino.

In terms of the MHSAA’s “MPR” – an imperfect but helpful scale that balances a team’s win-loss record and matches it with that of their opponents in an attempt to give teams a “power” rating – Ford has a slight edge. At .632, their mark is slightly higher than the .628 for West Bloomfield.

The Lakers aren’t the same buzzsaw they were last year, and their 18-8 record compared to their championship mark of 27-1 is a blatant indicator of that.

The Davis twins — Summer and Indya — are Georgia Bulldogs now, and their absence did leave a hole in West Bloomfield’s roster.

But they went 8-2 in the super-competitive Oakland Activities Association Red and buzzed through difficult districts and regions for a reason.

Sheridan “Real Deal” Beal, only a junior, is a handful for everybody and has had games scoring 32, 30, 28 (against D2 semifinalist Country Day), 26 (twice), 24, to name a few. She scored 16 in the regional final to beat Grand Blanc and then had 18 in the Lakers’ state quarterfinal win over Clarkston, which is the same team that beat Ford’s rival, Eisenhower.

Londyn Hall, at 5-foot-11, is one of the team’s go-to inside forces and Breasia Gamble-Jones provides veteran leadership as one of the squad’s seniors. Those two combined to score 31 points and grab 19 rebounds in the Lakers’ victory over Clarkston.

When Ava Lord gets going, too, West Bloomfield seems to have all the tools necessary to repeat.

But then there’s Ford — who just might have all the tools to keep the Lakers from hoisting another mitten.

Like how Beal is the engine in West Bloomfield’s offensive machine, so too is Anayya Davis for Ford.

The Grand Valley State commit is not only a good bet to go for 20 points nightly, but she’s become a high-level playmaker, handing out a career-high 10 dimes in the Falcons’ district tournament win over Stevenson on March 5.

One of the main benefactors of her improved passing is Tyra Wright, who recently became the program’s all-time leader in 3-pointers made.

Alongside her is wing Emily Leusby, who is just as big of a threat from the perimeter, which opens up the paint for 6-foot center Claire O’Brien, who benefits greatly from the space around her as a drop-off, post-up scorer.

Ford is undoubtedly at their most dangerous when both Davis and Wright are cooking, as evidenced by their Dec. 16 win over Rochester when Davis had 29 points and 10 rebounds and Wright scored 27.

Defensively, Ford always strives to hold their opponents under 40 points.

And while it’s not impossible against the Lakers, they wouldn’t be the first ones to do it — West Bloomfield scored 40 or under against Tecumseh, Stoney Creek (twice) and DEPSA, going 1-3 in those games.

The two have a common opponent in Grosse Pointe South, who went 0-3 against the two teams.

West Bloomfield notably lost to South Lake, but that was back in the second week of the season.

West Bloomfield has had a tougher schedule, though, with an opponent win percentage of .636 compared to Ford’s of just .539.

Take that with the Lakers’ experience in big games — they played all the way through the playoffs, into the Breslin Center and won the state title all while Ford was done in districts last year — and West Bloomfield certainly has an advantage in “big game experience.”

How much that matters remains to be seen.

Tip-off from Calihan Hall between the Lakers and Falcons is set for 7 p.m.