Madison Lueger

After a strong volleyball season that saw the Centralia Panthers capture yet another 1A State Title, the girls’ basketball team headed into the year with high hopes.

Unfortunately for the Panthers the season didn’t start off on the right foot with a road loss to Nemaha Central to open up the year, but after a slow start Centralia has started to find their groove.

The Panthers have won four straight since that week one loss including a 48-35 win over Hanover a little over a week ago.

Centralia racked up two more wins last week with each coming by 30-plus points and a big key to that was the play of senior Madison Lueger.

The Panthers opened up the week with a 67-12 win at home and Lueger got going for the first time this season notching 18 points.

She followed that up with an even more impressive performance Friday night, as she poured in 23 points in Centralia’s 61-30 win at Washington County.

After the two big games Lueger has bumped her point per game average to right around 17 points a night, while she is also pulling down over seven rebounds per game as well.

She was an all-TVL selection a year ago, while she also earned Class 1A Second Team All-State honors as well.

Lueger and the Panthers will look to wrap up the 2018 portion of the schedule Tuesday night, as Centralia will try to move to 5-1 with a win at Wetmore.