It is really a matter of semantics.

Focus or hunger.

One boils deep inside the body while the other locks out everything around it.

Both are evident in the Madison High School girls basketball team, which takes a 24-2 record into the Division III regional finals against 23-4 Anna at 1:30 p.m. today at Springfield High School.

“We tell them to focus on the task at hand, regardless if it is practice or a game,” Madison coach John Rossi said. “If you stay focused and confident, then things will come out well. But I don’t know what they talk about when they are by themselves.”

Madison’s senior leadership came to the forefront in a regional semifinal win over Fayetteville. Down 10 at the break, the Mohawks chipped away, took the lead and hit their free throws down the stretch for a 67-58 win.

“They understood that we were not going to get it back in one possession,” Rossi said. “We had to have our first five or six possessions be productive in the third quarter and once we got the lead, I think their (Fayetteville’s) confidence evaporated.”

Anna and Madison met Jan. 26 and the Mohawks handed the Rockets a 66-56 defeat.

Rossi knows this meeting will be different.

“They are better than they were then and so are we; I don’t expect anything less than a war,” Rossi said. “I think that meeting helps because the kids believe they can beat them, but Anna is going to feel revenge as a good motivation.”

Rossi expects the Rockets to pressure the Mohawks. He gave the squad Friday off to rest.

“It is going to boil down to the fundamentals,” Rossi said. “We have to rebound it and take care of it, but they are going to pressure us the whole time; we’ve got to go in there with fresh legs.”