Call them Road Warriors.
Feed them pizza and Gatorade and put them on a bus for a long ride to an unfamiliar gymnasium, and there's not much the Rancocas Valley boys' basketball team can't accomplish.
"We love playing away from home," junior guard Tariq Jett said.
Rancocas Valley (19-11), the Central Jersey champion, will play another game away from home at noon Sunday. This time, it's the Group 4 state finals against Paterson Eastside (19-8), the North I champion, at Rutgers University.
But the strange site will be strangely familiar to the Red Devils, who have won all five of their postseason games away from their home gym in Mount Holly.
"We've taken 27 bus trips this year," Rancocas Valley coach Jay Flanagan said. "We played all five of our scrimmages away from home. These guys like to get on the bus and go."
Flanagan believes the routine of all those road trips has helped his team overcome the adversity of this season as much as the challenges of South Jersey's most demanding schedule.
The Red Devils were expected to be among the top five teams in South Jersey at the start of the season. But injuries and internal issues kept the team from finding its footing until the start of the sectional tournament.
"We had some chemistry issues," Flanagan said. "We went through some things that we normally don't go through. It was a real struggle for this team at times."
Through it all, the Red Devils kept getting on the bus and traveling to play tough opponents. They had road tests against Burlco Liberty foes such as Trenton Catholic and Burlington Township, plus away games at Cinnaminson and Williamstown.
They played neutral-site games against St. Anthony of Jersey City, Communications Tech of Philadelphia, Holy Spirit, Lakewood, and Haddonfield.
They traveled to Wildwood, Atlantic City, and Union in the regular season, and to Hillsborough, East Brunswick, Jackson, and Egg Harbor Township in the postseason.
Now they are set for their 28th bus ride of the season, to Rutgers in search of the program's fourth state title.
"Playing the hard schedule definitely prepared us for the playoffs," Rancocas Valley senior swingman Kenny Johnson said. "Playing all those tough teams makes you a tougher team."
The 6-0 Jett has been the Red Devils' top player in the postseason. He went for 31 points in the sectional semifinals, and scored 22 with seven assists in a 73-66 victory over Shawnee in the state semifinals.
Jett said the Red Devils' schedule has played a big factor in their late-season success.
"It made us tough, and now we take it out on other people," Jett said.
Plus, the road-tripping Red Devils have come to appreciate the sweet silence of those home crowds they have left in their wake.
"We like it on the road," Jett said. "We like disappointing crowds."