Waiting and hoping for a week turned into shouting and celebrating Saturday night for members of the Wolfpack girls basketball team and their legion of fans. With North Central’s victory over Randolph Saturday night, the Wolfpack locked down a wild card berth in the Class D-1 Girls State Basketball Tournament.
Going in as the sixth-seed, the 19-4 Wolfpack will play #3 seed Heartland who enters the state tournament with a 21-4 mark. The game will be played Thursday (today) at 3:45 p.m. at Lincoln Southwest High School (7001 South 14th Street).
For the Wolfpack, this will mark the first time competing at the state tournament as Elgin Public-Pope John. Elgin Public went to the state tournament five times, the last in 1992. They won a D-1 state championship in 1988, defeating Wausa 51 to 46. Pope John played in the state tournament four times, the last in 2008 when they lost in the championship game to Bancroft-Rosalie.
For Heartland, this will be their first time at state. Heartland, which encompasses students from Henderson and Bradshaw, these towns have very little state tournament history. Henderson made it to state three times, the last in 1990.
The Wolfpack-Heartland game will be the last of four first-round games. Other first-round games are #1 seed GACC (21-2) vs. Meridian #8 (20-6) at 9 a.m. followed by #4 North Central (19-3) vs. #5 Elm Creek (23-2) at 10:45 a.m. The afternoon will feature #7 Pender (18-8) vs. #2 Dundy County-Stratton (25-0) at 2 p.m. Seedings were based on power points accumulated during the season.
First-round tournament games will be played at Lincoln Southwest High School. Semi-final round games Friday will be played at Devaney while championship round games Saturday will be at the Pinnacle Bank Arena.
For more about the Wolfpack-Heartland matchup, check out this week’s sports story in the print edition of The Elgin Review.
