A championship and a trip to the state tournament is at stake as the Winfield-Mount Union girls’ basketball team faces North Mahaska in the Class 1A Region 8 finals tonight, a game you can hear on KCII. WMU is 21-1 and ranked eighth in the state.

The Wolves have been an elite defensive team, giving up only 27 points per game and forcing better than 14 steals per contest. But senior forwards Bradie Buffington and Melina Oepping have been just as hard to stop when they’re on offense, combing to average 27 points a game themselves.

Mix in the all-around prowess of senior guard Keely Malone and a red-hot shooting stretch from Keetyn Townsley and Anna Anderson, and you have the formula for a team that started the season 19-0. But WMU head coach Mendy McCreight tells KCII Sports there’s one simple reason why this team will keep winning.

“Now they believe,” McCreight says. “I kept telling them and telling them [that] you got to believe, and we can achieve anything.”

If Winfield-Mount Union is going to make the state tournament for the first time in 25 years, they will need to take down the 13th-ranked team in 1A. North Mahaska won 17 straight at one point this season and comes in with a record of 20-3. The Warhawks lean on a strong defense of their own, yielding 39 points per game, while sophomore Breckyn Schilling has been an all-around force with an average of almost 19 points, six rebounds and four assists.

WMU tries to knock off North Mahaska for a ticket to Des Moines this evening in the 1A Region 8 championship game. You can hear the Winfield-Mount Union Wolves face the Warhawks on all KCII stations and streaming on KCIIradio.com. Coverage begins with the pregame show at 6:30.