Turns out a trip to the Nebraska State Basketball Tournament was in the cards for the Wauneta-Palisade girls’ basketball team.
    Following a loss to Maywood/Hayes Center in subdistrict finals, WP knew there was a chance for the Lady Broncos to earn a wildcard berth to the state tournament. Everything would need to fall into place, however.
    Hitchcock County needed to win its D1 district finals to give WP a needed boost in the points standings. Two wins over a state qualifying team would shoot the Broncos up the point standings. The Falcons came through with a 53-32 win over Morrill.
    Looking at the D2 district pairings, number one (based on the NSAA Class D2 point standings) Falls City Sacred Heart played number three Exeter-Milligan. That game would fill one wild card position.
    WP officials were most worried about number two Humphrey St. Francis playing Wynot. If the Flyers lost, WP would have a hard time moving up far enough to pass HSF. The Flyers won 41-29.
    After one, two and three in the point standings were taken care of, number four Ewing lost its game to Riverside 51-54. The question came down to: Would WP have enough points to jump ahead of Ewing. The mathematicians at WP said yes, but it would be close, down to less than a tenth of a point.
    At 10:22 CT the NSAA updated the point standings, WP, 43.8696; Ewing, 43.8000. The Broncos were in.
    “This is the first time I’ve ever been involved with a wildcard trip to the state tourney, and it’s quite a different experience,” WP Head Coach Matt Cox said.
    Looking at the Broncos’ schedule heading into the season, Cox said he felt WP  could have the opportunity to earn a wildcard spot.
    As the season went on, however, he started to have concerns.
    “After we went 0-2 during conference week, losing to MHC and Hitchcock County, I had counted it out,” Cox said.”Even going into subdistricts, I felt we were down on the list in power point rankings too far for it to be a possibility.”
    Then came the 44-49 loss to MHC, a team WP had beat six days before.
    “The locker room was a pretty sad place to be,” Cox said, adding, “I was very happy and proud with the way we played, but as far as I was concerned our season was done!”
    Outside the locker room, athletic director Joseph Frecks waited.
    “To have Mr. Frecks meet us outside the locker room and tell me that Potter-Dix lost and that would open some things up, and that Coach Kuhlen had been doing the math and thought we had a real shot at climbing the rankings if Hitchcock County and HSF could win out came as quite a shock to me.”
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