Centralia 62, Hanover 50

For the second straight year the Centralia Panthers boys squad as punched their ticket to the state tournament in Emporia. Despite not any any seniors on the squad Centralia return a great core from last year's team and came on strong in the second half of the season to ultimately help complete their run to the state tournament.

Panthers took on the Hanover Wildcats in the sub-state championship and downed the Wildcats, 62-50. Centralia was only up 28-23 at the half but used a 17-10 third quarter to push their lead to double figures and win by that margin.

It was the junior tandem of Sam Steinlage and Brett Burdiek highlighting the night for the Panthers as they both tallied 26 and 22 points, respectively. Steinlage had only six points at the half and went to kill instinct mode in the second half going off for 20 points, 12 of which came in the fourth quarter. Burdiek lead the way in the first half with 15 of his 22 in the first half of action.

Hanover in the loss was lead by Wade Steinfort and Austin Diederich who posted 16 and 13 points, respectively. With the loss Hanover fell to 15-7 to close out their season with the loss in the sub-state championship game.

Centralia with the win improved to 18-5 on the season and continues their strong second half of the season run, now into the state tournament coming up this week.