The Howells-Dodge Girls are at state for the third year in a row after defeating Twin River 50-42 in the C2-4 District Final at Central Community College in Columbus on Saturday.
The Jaguars led 14-9 after one before doubling up the Titans 20-10 in the second quarter to take a 34-19 lead into the locker room.
Twin River won the third quarter 6-4 to make it a 38-25 game at the end of three.
The Titans outscored Howells-Dodge 17-12 in the fourth quarter.
Sam Brester finished with 14 points and 7 rebounds while Chelsea Bayer and Macey Kulhanek registered 11 points apiece. Kalli Brester chipped in 7.
A fast start and a good first half appeared to be the difference in this one.
22-3 and 3rd seeded Howells-Dodge takes on 20-3 and 6th seeded Cambridge in the first round of the State Tournament in Lincoln Thursday night. Head Coach Scott Polacek says the Trojans have some girls that can play. "I watched some film, and they look pretty tough. Their number one player is Alea Shaner. And she was an All-State Player already a year ago. She can penetrate, and she can post up, and she can shoot 3's And they have another good outside three-point threat and a couple freshmen that are playing very, very well for them."
Both teams were D-1 State Qualifiers a year ago with the Jaguars finishing State Runner-Up.
Polacek says his team has had balanced scoring lately, and that's made it tough on opponents. "We've been pretty successful with our balanced scoring the last few games. We've had a couple other girls step up, and our outside game has been real strong lately. And that's helped us out. We haven't had to rely a lot on our inside game. We've been able to kind of score from a lot of different places. That's made us a lot harder to stop for the opponent, definitely."
Howells-Dodge has a pretty favorable draw if you ask me. The Jaguars are facing a team that has fluctuated between C-2 and D-1 themselves so both of these teams are sort of having to adapt to playing up a class.
The difference is the Trojans have been C-2 before so some of their girls probably know what to expect maybe more so than Howells-Dodge.
At the end of the day state is state and basketball is basketball though, and all the rules and everything are the same as if the Jaguars were in D-1.
The difference is the field is definitely tougher in C-2 than in D-1 so Howells-Dodge definitely has their work cut out for them this weekend, but there's no doubt in my mind the Jaguars can make a run and find themselves playing on Saturday.
If Howells-Dodge wins on Thursday, they would play either Hastings St. Cecilia or Ponca in the semifinals on Friday.
This has to be an exciting time for all the players coaches, fans, and the communities of Howells and Dodge.
The Jaguars have had a great run these last few years, and hopefully Howells-Dodge finds themselves playing three games this weekend.
It should be a lot of fun and an electric atmosphere as always.
Tip-off is set for 7:00 at Lincoln North Star, and the game can be heard on 107.9 the Bull.
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