Somerset — Heading into tonight’s opening round of the Girl’s All “A” Classic at the Frankfort Civic Center, the Somerset Lady Briar Jumpers find themselves in very familiar territory — their backs up against the wall.

Then again, what else is new for Chris Adkins and crew for this year?

Somerset’s back has been up against the proverbial wall for much of this season, as the Lady Jumpers have struggled at times this year, splitting their first 18 games of the 2011-’12 campaign.

And, the Lady Jumpers struggles haven’t necessarily been the fact they come into tonight’s contest against highly touted Monroe County with a 9-9 worksheet for the year either.

Somerset’s struggles for the vast majority of this season has came in the form of injuries and illnesses — forcing coach Adkins to juggle his starting lineup over and over and over for the majority of the season.

And, that will probably be the case once again this evening, as Somerset may have to go without one of its starters — senior sharp-shooter Cassie Bray.

“I was looking the other day, and we have had four games this year where we’ve had our five starters out there together,” stated Adkins.

“And, the good news is, we’ve won all four of those games when they were out there,” continued the Lady Jumper coach. “We’ve had all kinds of injuries and illnesses that we’ve had to deal with this year, and it looks as if we’re going to have to continue dealing with some adversity heading into the All ‘A’ against a very good Monroe County team.”

That fact is not at all a good sign for a Somerset squad that has the daunting task of trying to slow down a very good Monroe County team that will bring an 18-2 record into tonight’s contest, with just one of those losses coming to a team from Kentucky.

The Lady Falcons — one of the favorites in the 4th Region this season — are ranked number six in the state of Kentucky in this week’s Associated Press poll, and are coming off a 24-7 mark from a year ago, in which they finished as the All A state runner-up, losing to Owensboro Catholic in last season’s title game 65-60.

However, Dwayne Murray’s team has been running roughshod over the competition this season, with the Lady Falcons lone losses coming to Butler, 43-37, and to Upperman, Tennessee by a final count of 42-40.

So, it’s easy to see that Somerset is going to have its hands full in tonight’s final game of the opening round of the tourney.

“Monroe County is an outstanding basketball team,” stated coach Adkins.

“They’ve got a big girl in the middle, with what looks to be four really good shooters on the wings, so we’re definitely going to have our hands full,” pointed out the SHS coach. “They shoot the ball really well, so that’s probably going to put a lot of pressure on our zone defense. The one positive for us is that it doesn’t look like they have a lot of size except for the big girl in the middle, so that’s at least one positive we can take into this game.”

One negative Somerset will bring into tonight’s game is the status of senior guard Cassie Bray.

Bray — a deadly shooter from behind the arc and a very experienced player for the Lady Jumpers — is a question mark at best headed into tonight’s game.

Bray was injured in last Friday’s All A 12th Regional championship game, leading Somerset with a team-high 18 points in the Lady Jumpers thrilling, 67-57 double overtime win over Monticello on the Lady Trojans home court.

Tonight however, whether Bray plays or not will probably not be known until right before tipoff.

That’s not exactly the kind of news any coach would want to hear when getting ready to take on one of the favorites in the entire tournament, and one of the top teams in the state of Kentucky.

“At this point, Cassie has been on crutches, and I’m hopeful that she will get to play in this game,” stated coach Adkins.

“I can tell you that more than likely, she will be a game-time decision,” added the SHS coach. “And, even if she does get to play, she is going to be very limited with how many minutes she will be able to play.”

While Somerset has had a ton of adversity to deal with this season with all the injuries that have occurred, maybe one more bit of bad news for the Lady Jumpers is the fact the purple and gold have struggled in recent years at the All A Classic.

Tonight marks Somerset’s fourth trip to the All A State Tournament since 2005, and the Lady Jumpers are only 1-3 in their last four games at the event.

In fact, it’s almost been five years since Somerset last won a game at the All A — a 40-35 victory over Raceland way back on January 31, 2007 in the first round of that tournament.

After that win, Somerset fell in the Elite 8 that year to Paris, 27-22, and then didn’t go back until 2010, where the Lady Jumpers fell to Green County 59-45.

Still, Somerset will be there tonight, and while things certainly don’t appear to be in the Lady Jumpers favor this evening, Adkins says for his team to just get to the All A this season with everything that’s happened is a testament to just how special a group he has on this year’s squad.

“These girls on this team are very low maintenance, and you just don’t have to worry about them, because they just do the right thing all the time,” pointed out the Somerset head coach.

“We had a team GPA of 3.6 for the first semester, which speaks to the character of this team,” Adkins said.

Tipoff for tonight’s Monroe County—Somerset game is set to get underway from the Frankfort Civic Center at 9:30 p.m.