When conference rivals meet during the regular season, the teams usually have at least three weeks before they see each other the second time around.

Teams from the 7A-Central Conference are having to wait only three days.

Top-ranked Little Rock Central’s girls will play tonight at No. 3 North Little Rock.

“It’s a rival game, the kids are going to play hard,” North Little Rock Coach Daryl Fimple said. “The kids all know each other. They play in the summers. It’s something big and it usually has conference championship implications on it. I’m sure there will be a packed house at our place, probably 3,000 people, standing room only. It will be a wonderful game and it will be really, really good for high school girls basketball.”

North Little Rock (18-2, 6-1) rallied for a 64-56 victory Tuesday in front of a jampacked Tiger Fieldhouse, ending a nine-game winning streak for Little Rock Central (19-2, 6-1).

North Little Rock trailed 42-33 midway through the third quarter, but the Charging Wildcats outscored the Lady Tigers 31-14 the remainder of the game.

“No doubt, no doubt,” said Central Coach Michael Green, when asked if he thought tonight’s game would be just as intense as Tuesday’s. “Like I told my kids, ‘all we have to do is regroup.’ We’ve got two days. We’ll go over there and I expect the same game but with different results.”

Junior guard Amber Hawkison led North Little Rock with 17 points and senior Mackenzie Tillman scored 11 of her 16 points in the second half.

Central went more than five minutes without a point during the fourth quarter thanks to North Little Rock’s time-killing possessions, one of which lasted 2½ minutes.

“Two or three weeks ago I don’t think we could have done that,” Fimple said. “We probably would have thrown it in the stands or taken out a couple of cheerleaders. It would have been a pretty bad deal.”

Central sophomore Jordan Greenwood led her team with 18 points while three other Lady Tigers — Abigayle Jackson, Bre’Amber Scott and Erynn Barnum — each added 12.