Bishop Heelan girls draw unranked team at state - KTIV News 4 Sioux City IA: News, Weather and Sports

The Bishop Heelan girls basketball team has been ranked number-1 in Class 4A all season and they would like to finish number-1.

The Crusaders will get that chance after qualifying for the state tournament on Tuesday night.

Heelan had a 28-point halftime lead and beat Spencer 70 to 39, to improve their record to 20 and 3. The Crusaders scored 29 points in the second quarter and 21 more in the third to put the game out of reach.

Megan McCarthy had a season-high 21 points to lead the Crusaders.

This will be Heelan's sixth trip to state in the last seven years, so they know what to expect.

"We always talk about that. It's important to get down there so your young kids can experience that," said Bishop Heelan head coach Darron Koolstra. "I think that will help us this year and obviously in years to come with the kids that are playing for us. We've got a lot of sophomores and juniors that are playing for us too. That does us a lot of good to get down there and get that experience. So hopefully last year's experience will help us out."

Heelan will play the only unranked team to make the 4A field, Dubuque Wahlert, in round one of the tourney. Wahlert (10-13) upset ninth-ranked North Scott to get to state.

That game is next Wednesday, February 27, at 11:30 in the morning. A win would put the Crusaders in the semifinals on Thursday night at 8:30.