The Centralia girls basketball team is back at the State Tournament after putting together another dominant season.

The Panthers are 20-2 heading to Colby, and they dominated Burlingame 65-35 in the Sub-State Title game on Saturday at Doniphan West.

They also defeated Troy in the semifinals 42-36. Centralia’s lone two losses of the season were against Clifton-Clyde on February 16th and Big 7 League Champs Nemaha Central on December 1st in the season opener.

This is the first trip to the State Tournament since 2022 and that year the Panthers lost an absolute heartbreaker in the Championship game to Pretty Prairie 37-35 which was their only loss that season.

Centralia is the #5-seed and will face #4-seed (21-1) Norwich in the first round in Colby on Thursday, March 7th at 4:00 PM.

Head coach Dusty Thompson: “Seeing the girls put it all together (in the Sub-State title game) was awesome. They outworked Burlingame at both ends of the floor.

The girls saying this year is “with each other for each other.”

“I feel like this applies to the support from the community as well and I’m sure it’ll continue through the State Tournament.”

KMZA 92.1 FM will be carrying all Centralia games from Colby.