Two weeks ago, Western's girls basketball team clung to only an outside possibility that it would make it to the Baltimore City Division I girls basketball championship. With Dunbar unbeaten in the division and Poly and City having one loss each, the Doves' two losses appeared enough to shut them out.

How things have changed.

After finishing in a three-way tie for second place with Dunbar and City, the No. 8 Doves won the tie breaker and will play No. 7 Poly for the Division I championship Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Baltimore City Community College.

First, the Doves helped themselves with a 74-66 overtime win over 10 Dunbar on Feb. 8. Then, they had to wait for a little help. Digital Harbor provided the assistance, knocking off Dunbar Friday night, 52-48, to drop the Poets to 7-2 in the division, the same record as Western's.

Friday night at No. 11 City, Poly sealed its berth in the title game with a 40-35 win that gave the Engineers an 8-1 division record. City fell to 7-2.

Western, Dunbar and City were each 1-1 against the other two, so it game down to winning percentage vs. Maryland Public Secondary School Athletic Association opponents.

Western, with only two losses to to MPSSAA teams had the best winning percentage, edging Dunbar which had three losses. City, last year's city champion, was a distant third with all eight of its losses to MPSSAA opponents.

Western won four straight city championships from 2006 to 2009, but did not make it to the title game last year. Wednesday night's game will be a rematch of the Jan. 14 game won by Poly 50-42.

"The kids clearly want revenge," Western coach Tiffany Silver said. "That was our Homecoming night, so to lose at homecoming to them doesn't feel very good, but we figure we'll see them again in the regionals too."

Poly will be looking for its first championship since 1996.

This is the first time the city league has been split into a strong division and a weaker division, putting all the powerhouses -- Poly, Western, City, Digital Harbor, Dunbar -- in the same division so they all play each other during the regular season and the top two play off for the title. In years past, the top two teams in each division played for the city title, but many times, all of the top contenders were in one division, resulting in a lopside city championship game.

"This is what we've been wanting for the last five years, to make it more competitive so you don't have one team on one side that doesnt' have to win any big games to make it to the city championship," Silver said. "Last year the game was competitive with Digital and City, but prior to that, we won every city championship by 30-40 points, so I definitely love the way they did it this year."

In the Division II title game, Southside will face Southwestern at 5 p.m. Wednesday at BCCC.