Being on the bubble. It’s a phrase that is often tossed around during March Madness with college teams. For a majority of the season, the Central girls basketball team found themselves on the playoff bubble, ever trying to clinch a spot. But for the second season in a row, the Panthers’ bubble burst after being edged for the final spot by Ridgeview. The same happened last season when Central missed the final playoff spot by one one-hundredth of a seeding point.
“We kind of knew we were on the fence going into the last few games,” said head coach Marc Burleson. “We knew that we were on the bubble anyway and I was hoping that closing out with three wins would be enough. But when, unfortunately, it was against teams that were ranked lower than us that became the question of would that be enough to jump over Eagle Point, who was basically the next team up to vie for the final wild card.”
Burleson added they were still hoping that the numbers would shake out for in their favor.
“But we kind of knew after Tuesday’s game as soon as Eagle Point jumped to 14 in the rankings that that was it. But it’s obviously disappointing to not make the playoffs when that’s your goal at the beginning of the year.”
Despite not clinching a postseason spot, the Panthers still saw improvement across the board. They improved by two wins and a league victory from a season ago along with big moments including knocking off Crescent Valley at home. But out of the 24 total games on the season for Central, 10 matchups were decided by 10 points or less.
“Every night they put their best effort out there,” said Burleson. “We only had maybe a couple of games all year long where it just wasn’t our night. But for the most part, they did everything that was asked of them. They came out and they battled every single night and they made other teams play to their best effort every single game. Everyone has come ready to play us and of course, it’s sad when you get into just how things shook out and, one foul here, one less turnover and one big basket, and things might be completely different.”
The Panthers bookended their season just like they started their campaign with three wins in a row. In a look ahead to next season, Central sees Olivia Garland, Kendall Seidel, Mariah Moore, Natalie Hernandez-Gutierrez and Sadie Wendring leave the program after finishing their senior year. But varsity returners Hadley Craig, Emily Newbeck and McKenzie Wells will hopefully be the leaders of a new Panthers squad that will again have their sights set on a postseason berth.
“I’ve already talked to the juniors and obviously Hadley about next year and they’re already excited,” said Burleson. “Obviously we’re going to miss our seniors because they provided so much for us. But this core group of juniors are really looking forward to continuing to build our culture. And knowing how close we were at times this season I think the girls are going to come out and work really hard for next season.”
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