It's been three seasons since the class 1A division 1 Centralia Girls went and upset the powerful class 3A Nemaha Central Thunder, but last night, they did it in dominating fashion to begin the basketball season with a 46-24 win. The tempo of Centralia was purely unmatched and they were all over the court in every quarter. Coming into the night Nemaha Central led the all-time series 5-1, but now only at a three game lead 5-2.

The girls game started off hot for Centralia Panthers with an early takeover in the first quarter 22-9. The first timeout of the game was taken by the Thunder while only down 9-8 with minutes left to go in the first, but the Thunder just couldn’t handle the pressure and the quick transition, lots of credit to the Centralia sophomore, Hayden Kramer, on her on-the-ball defense. The Panthers also got hot from the four threes they knocked down in the first quarter, only finishing with five total threes on the game. The half ended 30-11.

In The second half the class 3A Nemaha Central Thunder were only outscored 16-13, unfortunately getting behind the numbers early on made the comeback hard, especially with the time of possession being dominated by the Panthers. The game would finish 46-24 with many JV players taking the court for both sides. 

Oen Deters had a great game with eleven points and about four rebounds, she even went two-of-two at the free-throw line. The Junior Cora Thompson dominated the paint play with her four points but also roughly six rebounds. Sophomores Josie Haverkamp finished with eight points and Keelyn Rempe had six off two threes in the first quarter. Cali Honeyman and Zoey Sudbeck were the leading scores on the Thunder with five points and nearly three rebounds each. 

Centralia will improve to 1-0 to start what is going to be an extremely thrilling and exciting year for this athletes, as next week they will look to take on St. Mary's. The Thunder Girls drop to 0-1 and have a lot to learn from the loss and will seek to improve as the season progressesc NC will play Hanover next Tuesday.