For all his basketball team’s imperfections, for all the occasions when their on-court IQs haven’t equaled their shoe sizes — for all the times that coach Jason Slate has railed about Lithia Springs’ inability to finish off a beaten foe, this is the inescapable truth that faces the Lions tonight:

They have the chance to win Region 5-AAAA by beating Sandy Creek at home.

Slate is never satisfied, never allows his Lions to be satisfied and even if they do what they can tonight, don’t expect his intensity to wane before they take care of the next objective.

“We can win the regular season, but if you don’t take care of that first game in the region tournament, you’re not playing anymore,” Slate said Monday. “Your season’s over.”

With that, Slate turned his attention to practice, when he put his Lions through their paces on ball-handling against pressure. They didn’t do a good job of that in a 66-59 loss to South Cobb on Saturday that ended a nine-game winning streak.

The Lions (19-4, 10-1) will be able to gauge their improvement in that area tonight because Sandy Creek likely will try to harass them.

“They do like to pressure you, they’re big and athletic,” Slate said. “We’ve got to keep them off the offensive glass. That and taking care of the ball will be our two main objectives.”

Sandy Creek (14-9, 7-4) will try to undo the help it has given Lithia Springs. The Fighting Patriots beat Fayette County, the one 5-AAAA team that beat the Lions. That has contributed to Fayette and Mays being tied for second, with two region losses apiece.

A loss would drop Lithia Springs into a three-way tie that the Lions would just as soon avoid.

If the Lions win, they likely would face a first-round region tournament game against either Tri-Cities or Villa Rica — teams they have beaten already.

“If we can beat Sandy Creek,” Slate said, “I’ll take that.”