Top 50 Team Countdown (6): Falls City Sacred Heart girls basketball

(Falls City) -- The eighth state championship team in the history of the Falls City Sacred Heart girls basketball program is the No. 6 team on KMA Sports Top 50 Team Countdown.

While the Irish repeated as Class D2 state champions, they did so with plenty of new faces in the lineup.

The defending Class D2 state champion had some ups and downs early in the season, but the Irish but sat 10-2 with six consecutive wins when head coach Luke Santo talked with KMA Sports in early January.

The Irish had to replace four contributors from last year's state championship squad, including KMAland Nebraska Player of the Year Erison Vonderschmidt. They started the year with a loss to Sterling and dropped a contest to Bishop LeBlond (MO).

"There were some big shoes to fill, but we did have four seniors coming back," Santo said. "This summer was encouraging. We went to a summer league in Hiawatha, Kansas. That was encouraging, but some days we didn't look very good. We hoped our summer success would flow into the fall, but we got off to a rocky start. Before Christmas, we just weren't as consistent as we thought we would be."

The Irish won the coveted MUDECAS Tournament and ultimately finished the regular season at 20-3. They opened the postseason with a win over Diller-Odell and followed with a win over Parkview Christian to set up a district final matchup with Osceola.

Sacred Heart rolled to a district title, cruising to a 58-32 win for the program's 12th consecutive state tournament trip.

"It never gets old," Santo told KMA Sports. "It's never easy to go through the grind of a season. One of our goals is to always give ourselves a chance to get to Lincoln. It's a good time of the year."

While they don't know any different, Santo says trips to Lincoln are rarely talked about in his program.

"It's an unspoken expectation," Santo said. "Our girls embrace the tradition."

If there was ever a year for the streak to end, this looked to be it. The Irish lost several standouts from last year's state championship squad. However, the new lineup hardly missed a beat.

"We knew the cupboard wasn't bare," Santo said. "We had a good summer. That's where it started. Before Christmas, we were up and down. We've found something and have been playing good basketball."

The Irish opened the state tournament with a 64-30 rout of Leyton.

A rout didn't always look promising, especially when the Irish found themselves in an early 7-6 deficit.

"I thought we got off to a slow start," Santo said. "At halftime, we said we had to come out with a lot of energy. We talked about pushing the ball. We did that."

The Irish finished with three in double figures, led by 13 points from Jessica Wertenberger. Wertenberger did more than just score. She also accounted for seven rebounds and six steals.

"Everybody worked together," she said. "I feel like I did everything. I looked to drive, was aggressive and dished out to my open teammates."

"That's what Jessica does," Santo said of her stat-stuffing performance. "We can move her all over. We moved her to the high post because we thought it would be open. She was aggressive."

The win put Sacred Heart in a semifinal clash with Humphrey-St. Francis. This year's semifinal meeting was a rematch of the 2021 and 2022 state title games. It was also their fifth postseason meeting in the last 22 years.

The two squads staged a defensive-minded thriller that couldn't be decided in four quarters. Sacred Heart ultimately got just enough offense in overtime to hold off the Flyers for a 33-29 win.

"Survive and advance is perfect," Santo said after the win. "We just made a few more plays. That was tough. It's hard to play well when you get this far. There just wasn't a lot there, but we just stayed with it."

"I'm stoked to get another chance for a championship," senior Olivia Eickhoff said. "I'm excited."

The win put the Irish in the state title game for the 13th time in program history. There was once again a familiar foe awaiting them: Wynot. The two squads had previously met in the 2022 quarterfinals and 2021 semifinals, as well as in the 2015, 2017 and 2019 state championship games.

The Irish won another low-scoring affair, holding off Wynot 33-32 in a nail-biter for the program's eighth state title.

"Our girls just made some tough plays time and time again," Santo said. "You need some breaks, but I'm just so proud."

"It's a big honor," Wertenberger said. "It means a lot to me."

Wynot had a chance to win it in the final seconds, but couldn't get a clean look.

The defensive stand was eerily similar to the Irish's semifinal win 24 hours earlier, where they held off a Humphrey-St. Francis game-winning attempt and forced overtime.

"All year long, it's been our defense that carried us," Santo said. "We had some matchup problems, and they took advantage."

The Irish were uncharacteristically in a zone defense for the final sequence.

"I don't like playing zone," Santo said. "I feel helpless in it. It was a helpless feeling when they had the ball. We just guarded like crazy and did a good job pressuring them."

This year's title puts the 2022-23 Sacred Heart squad in the record books alongside the teams that won titles in 1999, 2000, 2015,2017, 2018 and 2022. Their eighth title puts them in a tie with Wynot for the fifth-most state titles behind only South Sioux City, Sandy Creek, Lincoln Southeast and Crofton.

"It's pretty special to get in company with names like that," Santo said. "We've been really fortunate over the years to have great players. We just try to develop them the best we can."