One game, one win and the Westside varsity basketball team will punch their ticket to Lincoln for the Class A State Tournament. 

After Monday night, four teams have claimed their ticket and will be headed down to Lincoln just a week from Thursday night. To guarantee their ticket to Lincoln, the Warriors must pass the eighth-ranked Papillion-La Vista Monarchs. 

Last Saturday, both teams played in their district semi-final matchups. Behind a 30 point night from Jadin Booth, the Warriors squeezed past the Omaha North Vikings. The Monarchs, having the second seed in the A-4 District Bracket, went up against the highly improved Millard South Patriots. Millard South, a team that went back and forth with the Warriors just two weeks earlier, couldn’t find much offense against the Monarchs and were eliminated. 

The Warriors have all 5 of their starters average at least 9 points a game while the Monarchs only have two. Averaging 10 more points a game as a team, the Warriors’ fast-paced offense is very different than the Monarchs’ more physical approach. To head coach Jim Simons, the game will either go one way or the other. 

“They are probably the polar opposite to us. They’re very big, very physical and they shoot the ball extremely well. They’re going to want a pace that’s slower than what we’ll want and it’ll be which team will be able to get the game at their pace and dictate pace better will be the team that will be successful,” Simons said.

For the second year in a row, the Warriors will be playing in a district final. Jadin Booth, who has been a part of the team each of those years, said he feels the team’s experience in big games like this will give them an advantage.

“We just gotta keep ourselves cool, calm and collected. A lot of our team has been here before and Papio doesn’t really have anybody that’s been in a district final,” Booth said. “We know we have that veteran leadership and that experience so we just gotta take it one play at a time we’ll hopefully come through.”

Tuesday’s game will tip-off at 7:00 p.m. at Westside High School and all student tickets are free. The game can also be viewed live on the Warrior Television Youtube channel and Westside Wired.