The Guardian Angels Central Catholic Girls Basketball Team punched their ticket to the State Tournament by defeating Weeping Water 34-27 in the D1-2 District Final at Wahoo Friday night.
The Indians got out to a 10-8 lead after one before the Bluejays tripled up Weeping Water 9-3 in the 2nd quarter to take a 17-13 lead into the locker room.
The Indians won the 3rd quarter 9-6 to close within a single point at 23-22 at the end of three.
GACC outscored Weeping Water 11-5 in the 4th quarter.
Angela Jansen registered 12 points and 14 rebounds, good enough for a double-double. Lexis Haase added 7 points and 7 rebounds.
Head Coach Jerry Stracke says his team's defense really played well in the win. "Well our defense. Defense has been our key the whole season. And hopefully we'll play good defense down at state and do well."
GACC (20-6) takes on Ansley-Litchfield (20-3) in the first round of State on Thursday at 3:45 p.m. at Lincoln Southwest in action that can be heard on 107.9 the Bull.
The Spartans qualified for state via wildcard after losing 37-32 to Overton in the D1-10 Sub-District Semifinals at Kearney Catholic on Tuesday, February 13th.
Ansley-Litchfield Head Coach Joel Bailey says the Eagles really took it to his squad. "That was kind of a just not a real good game for us. That score was not really even indicative of the game. We were blown out of that pretty early, and then battled back late to make it closer than maybe even what the game actually was. We just didn't show up to play very well that night."
Stracke says the Spartans figure to be a difficult matchup. "Well they're very athletic. And their height will give us some problems. They play a 3-2 zone, which we haven't really faced this year. And they diamond press so they play a full court game. So that's going to be a challenge for us, especially since we don't have veteran players out there. But hopefully we'll handle the situation and play well."
GACC is making their 21st consecutive appearance at the state tournament. "It's been special here. We've had some very good athletes. Good parent support, administration, great community. It's a combination of all those things, but like I said very fortunate and very lucky to be here," Stracke said.
The Spartans are making their first ever state tournament appearance in co-op history. Bailey says it's a big deal to be down in Lincoln. "It's pretty big for the basketball program. It's kind of been a volleyball co-op, volleyball schools in the past. They've qualified 2 or 3 different times probably. But we've never done it in basketball and so we're pretty excited to get this done and get down there and see what can happen."
Ansley-Litchfield is led by Sarah Lewis and Falan Ryan, who both average 10 points a game. Mariah Lane averages 9.
Haase is the Bluejays' leading scorer at 17 points a game. Marissa Hunke averages 9 a game while Jansen and Brenna Rief average 7 per contest.
I think GACC will win. I feel the Bluejays' state experience and strength of schedule will be too much for the Spartans to overcome.
I feel GACC's defense will be also too much for Ansley-Litchfield.
The winner gets either Friend or BDS in the Semifinals at 10:45 a.m. on Friday at the Devaney Center.
I feel the Bluejays have a chance to win state again, but it will be tough.
The D-1 field is pretty solid this year with a lot of good teams.
With that said, GACC has played a lot of great teams, and I would put their defense up against anyone in D-1.
I think it's just a matter of if the Bluejays can score.
A team with a high powered offense and good defense could give GACC some issues I would say.
Once again, coverage of Bluejay state basketball with the exception of a potential 3rd place game on Saturday can be heard on the Bull.
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