The South Central Timberwolves girls basketball team will take on the Kiowa County Mavericks Saturday at 6:00 p.m. in the Championship Game of the 2018 SPIAA Basketball Tournament.
They did it via a dominating win over the Spearville Royal Lancers girls basketball team Thursday night by a score of 60-38 Thursday night.
The high score didn’t necessarily indicate a strong performance from the Timberwolves.
“I thought we played about five really good minutes of basketball and then we basically coasted,” South Central head coach Tim Rietzke said. “Got comfortable that we were ahead, had a 15, 20 point lead, and then we just kinda killed time. I don’t think that effort that we had tonight will win Saturday night.”
The Timberwolves return to the championship game after winning the tournament last year.
They beat Kiowa County, their upcoming opponent earlier this season, and the two teams have history beyond that.
“It’s gonna be a tough game,” Rietzke said. “We’ve beaten them, we beat ‘em in the finals last year. I’m just guessing they’re probably gettin tired of that. So it’ll be a battle.”
South Central junior Bri Rutherford had a game-high 33 points.
“Bri’s a competitor,” Rietzke said. “She’s gotta score for us to be good but we can’t put that much pressure on one or two people to score.”
That was one of many things Rietzke wasn’t happy with.
“Tonight I was disappointed in our inside-play,” Rietzke said. “I didn’t think we worked hard enough to get the ball, not enough follow-shots, not enough free-throws. We gotta be a lot more physical.”
Tipoff for Friday's game is scheduled for 6 p.m.