After more than two weeks of district and regional championship play, the Class B girls basketball state tournament tips off this afternoon at the Watertown Civic Arena.
First-year Newell head coach Scott Wince is excited for his team, but knows the Irrigators will need to be on the top of their game to capture the title.
“People have asked what it’s like to be ranked No. 1, but it does not mean much,” Wince said. “You have to be careful as the one seed, because it doesn’t get you any wins or points. There are teams like the four and five seeds, Wall and Summit, who are awfully tough, so there is no easy game.”
In their first-round game Newell faces Highmore-Harrold, winners of the Region 3B championship.
“Highmore-Harrold is looking very good,” Wince said. “We just have to play better defense and do a better job of boxing out. We’d like to push the tempo and get our shooters on the outside involved. Megan (Mutchler) is averaging 15 points a game, so she will get doubled. If we knock down shots from the outside, it will open up our inside game.”
Wall head coach John Hess said the whole community is behind his team, and acknowledges that their earlier victory over Newell will be a big boost for his team’s confidence.
“The kids, the parents and the whole town are excited,” Hess said. “It was definitely really big for us to beat Newell, The girls are having fun, and we know if we play like we’re capable of we can beat anybody.”
The Eagles will need a strong defensive effort to advance against Summit, their first-round opponent.
“We’ll have to play good team defense,” Hess said. “They’re the defending state champs. Summit has a girl (Alex Kneeland) averaging 25 points, and she’s a ball player. There might be some jitters, but I want everybody to be dead tired after the game. That’s a big thing for us, to compete hard and get that first win.”
Newell (22-1 overall) faces No. 8 Highmore-Harrold (18-5) in the opener at noon MST. Following that game, No. 4 Summit (20-3), the returning champion, squares off against No. 5 Wall (20-3).
The night session begins with No. 2 Castlewood (21-2) facing
No. 7 Freeman (19-4) at 6 p.m.
No. 3 James Valley Christian (21-1) plays No. 6 Viborg (19-3) immediately after to close out the first day of tournament action.
The winner of the Newell-Highmore-Harrold contest will play the winner of the Summit-Wall matchup at 6 p.m. on Friday, while the victors in the Castlewood-Freeman game will take on the winner of the James Valley Christian-Viborg matchup at 7:45 p.m.
The first-round losers will be in the consolation round games beginning at noon on Friday. Saturday will have the seventh-place game at 11 a.m. and the consolation championship game scheduled to start at 12:45 p.m. The third-place game is set for a 5 p.m. tipoff on Saturday, with the tournament championship game slated for a
7 p.m. start.
