For the third straight season, the Nemaha Central girls basketball team is heading to Hutchinson for the 3A State Tournament.  The Thunder scored the first seven points of the game Saturday night in Marysville and never looked back in beating the host Lady Buldogs 46-31.  

Nemaha Central led 25-16 at halftime and used a 17-5 third quarter to double the score at 42-21 entering the fourth quarter.  Besides 20 turnovers, the Thunder did about everything right, including more great defense and knocking down five three-pointers.  NC followed up their 31-37 free throw semifinal win against Sabetha by making 5-8 and got 14 points from Alleigh Kramer plus 11 from Jacy Dalinghaus while Kirsten Lotscher added eight, including a couple more treys, to complete a breakout Sub-State week.  

Marysville girls end their season with a 14-8 record and was led by Sami Bartels who was 5-6 at the foul line in the fourth quarter to finish with nine points.  Nicole and Linda Franco combined to score 15.  

Nemaha Central takes a 20-3 record to state, where they lost in the opening round to Big 7 foe Royal Valley a year ago.  But this year, the Thunder lost a coin flip with Eureka to avoid the Panthers and as the #4 seed, NC wil open state on Wednesday night at 8:15 against Clay Center (19-4) with live coverage on KMZA 92.1 FM.