Weather Delays Slow, But Don't Stop, Girls Postseason Hoops

Turns out Nebraska high school girls basketball has Wilson Phillips. (You know, her ‘90s song Hold On...for one more day, then things will go your way...and maybe your game will get played...)

A winter storm followed by some of the most intense cold since Jerry Lewis showed up at that Dean Martin Roast has made a mess of the Class C and D girls basketball postseason. Like the girls sang, one more day of the bitterness (regarding the very cold weather) and we should see a rebound (in temperatures). We will get back to the business of girls basketball rebounds, and made shots and postseason wins and losses, for real starting tonight.

There was a sprinkling of girls subdistrict games which were played on Tuesday night, some even producing headline material. Here are some examples which come to mind:

C2-3. Top-seeded Guardian Angels Central Catholic held off sneaky good Archbishop Bergan, 43-40, and now faces defending C-2 state champion Yutan in the final. You just don't want to play a battle tested program like that, especially if you turn out to be a pretty substantial favorite. They call it "survive and advance" for a reason.

C2-6. I’m really into this Homer thing, and the Knights did advance last night, both to 23-1 for the season and into the subdistrict final following a harrowing 45-43 win over 11-13 Ponca, another tradition rich program with nothing to lose. Teams like that are scary to play, especially when all the chips are pushed to the middle of the table.

D2-3. Given their achievements of the last couple of decades it’s almost impossible to believe the Wynot girls will not make state. Or even a district final, as last night Bancroft-Rosalie beat the Blue Devils for the third straight time this season, 58-31. Again, Bancroft-Rosalie has its own great history in this sport, including three state titles, but it is still strange to see Wynot sidelined after missing out on state just once since 2009. Kudos to the Blue Devils for all they’ve done in the past, and you know they’ll be back in the future, but here’s another cautionary tale about the unsure footing of postseason basketball.

D2-6. Another state champion was eliminated last night when Amherst made the most of its third shot at Overton, this time winning 47-39 after losing to the champs twice in the regular season, by 11 and then by five in the FKC tournament. Waiting for the Broncos in the final will be another conference foe, top-seeded Wilcox-Hildreth, which won their regular season match by five points, 39-34.

* Several subdistrict tournaments were pushed back to starting today, including the C1-8 at Milford, C2-9 at Thayer Central, D1-1 at Odell, D1-10 at Bartley (Southwest HS), D1-12 at Morrill, D2-5 at Silver Lake and D2-10 at Mullen. The D2-9 at Benkelman (Dundy County-Stratton) will be played on Thursday and Friday.

There are also numerous other date and time changes, so be sure to keep up to date on the NSAA website: nsaahome.org/basketball-postseason-game-changes.

* Boys pairings for Class C and D subdistricts have been released and we will examine them later in the week, always a fun task, speculating like that. In the meantime I would like to note last night’s Douglas County West’s 58-48 boys basketball win over Omaha Concordia. That’s a pretty hefty win no matter what class you are in but for Class B DC West, which is straddling the B/C-1 line, it’s their best W of the season, just in time for postseason play to begin next week.

Lots going on - hope you enjoyed yesterday’s state wrestling conversation with Nick Rubek - and there will be lots more great moments for us to share as the basketball heats up just like the weather. (I mean, it’s already 1 degree!)