By LARRY MORITZ

Special to The Hays Daily News

MANHATTAN -- The semifinals won't take place until Friday, but one thing is already guaranteed at the Class 2A girls' state tournament -- a Mid-Continent League team will be playing for the state title.

Hill City and Osborne will meet for the third time this season after the MCL rivals both survived Wednesday's opening round of the 2A tourney at Bramlage Coliseum.

Hill City earned its spot in Friday's 6:30 p.m. semifinal with a 46-40 victory over Valley Heights. Osborne followed a short time later, winning its seventh consecutive opening-round game at the state tourney by downing Spearville, 49-41 in the final game of the night.

"Hill City and us -- that's the way we wanted it," said Osborne coach John Boden, whose team was 0-2 against Hill City in the regular season. "A little Mid-Continent League challenge on Friday."

Friday's other semifinal will match top seed Olpe, which defeated Lebo 54-40, against Berean Academy, a 64-53 winner over Pittsburg-Colgan.

Osborne (19-5) was the lone lower-seeded team to survive the first round, taking the lead for good late in the third quarter and never allowing Spearville (20-4) to regain momentum in the final eight minutes.

"That team is a monster," Boden said of Spearville. "That's a good team and they beat us physically, but this team is on a mission. We have eight seniors who will not give up their careers."

The Bulldogs did not attempt a free throw in the first half and trailed 23-20 at halftime. The fouls started to pile up for Spearville in the final two quarters, as Osborne went to the line 32 times and scored 17 of its 29 second-half points at the charity stripe.

Senior Andrea Cady had nine points for Osborne in the third quarter, then had the Bulldogs' only fourth-quarter field goal on a second-chance opportunity to put her team up 39-34 early in the period. Osborne scored its final 10 points at the free throw line, but didn't put Spearville away until two Cady free throws with 1:29 remaining made it 47-38.

The Lancers got a 3-pointer from Amanda Isreal to cut the deficit to six, but missed their final five shots from the field in the last minute.

Spearville turned the ball over 33 times, shot 33.3 percent (14 of 42) from the field and made 12 of 27 free throws.

"Overall we didn't play our game," Spearville coach Lorie Stein said. "We were not in sync offensively and (Osborne) played very well.

"They played aggressively, got some key steals and made their free throws, which they haven't done this year."

Paige Noel came off the bench and led Osborne with 15 points, while Cady had all 13 of her points in the second half. The Bulldogs are now 14-5 at Bramlage Coliseum since the 2000 state tourney.

"Somewhere in this house these girls must have some homemade soup, because this is their home," Boden said.

Spearville's Megan Stein, Amanda Israel and Elle Stein had eight points each. The Lancers finished with 56 rebounds, led by Becca Hornung-Heeke with 12.

"We struggled in every area of the game," Lorie Stein said. "Chalk it up to inexperience or youth. It's been a long time since we've been to a state tournament and hopefully we'll be back next year."

Hill City 46, Valley Heights 40

The numbers on the stat sheet for Tayler Money and Kaitlyn Davis won't draw a lot of attention, considering the Hill City starters finished Wednesday's state tourney opener with two points each.

But those points couldn't have come at a better time for the Ringnecks, who advanced despite a tough shooting night.

Davis grabbed an offensive rebound and got the stickback bucket to put Hill City up 40-36 with 1:28 remaining. Money then knocked down both ends of a one-and-one with 18 seconds to play, putting the Ringnecks up by six. It was the biggest lead in the second half by either team to that point, and Valley Heights was never able to make it a one-possession game the rest of the way.

"We usually score from the outside so it's nice to get some post scoring," said Hill City coach Linda Nighswonger. "Those girls do a nice job on the boards and defensively, so when they get points its icing on the cake."

The Ringnecks did not top 30 percent from the field in either half and finished the game hitting only 15 of 54 (27.8 percent) and 3 of 20 from 3-point range.

Hill City also had to overcome some foul problems for juniors Blair Nickelson and Lexi Hardiek, two of the team's three leading scorers. Both players were on the bench with four fouls early in the fourth quarter, but during that time sophomore Kelsey Keith kept her team in the game.

Valley Heights led 31-30 after a transition basket from Macy Parker with 6:30 remaining, but Keith had her team's next five points, hitting a pair of free throws to put her team back in front for good, then knocking down a 3-pointer from the top of the key to make it 35-31 with 5:31 to play.

"We found out they were playing some pretty tough defense so we had to adjust to that and go to the ball harder," Keith said.

"Blair and Lexi are two of our best players. Lexi is our best 3-point shooter and Blair is one of our best defensive players, so we need them in the game."

Hardiek finished with 14 points for the Ringnecks, with Keith adding 12 and Nickelson 11. Money and Davis combined for 17 of their team's 37 rebounds -- nine for Money and eight for Davis.