It is no secret that the Knoxville Girls basketball Squad has one of its toughest assignments in years before them tonight in the class 4A regional semifinals. Try to pull off an upset of top ranked and defending State Champion Dallas Center-Grimes. Almost no one is giving the Panthers a shot to even be in the game. But of course that was a prevailing opinion in last year’s NCAA Tournament matchup with 16th seed Fairleigh Dickinson and top seed Purdue, and FDU ended up knocking off Purdue in a stunning upset. Coach Matt Ritchhart has been showing the movie “Miracle” in his government class at Knoxville, which depicts the United States Hockey Team pulling off one of the all-time great upsets in sports history by defeating the Soviet Hockey Team in the 1980 Olympics. While an NCAA Tournament game and or an olympic hockey game likely will rate nationally higher on the scale of a high school girls basketball game, Ritchhart tells KNIA/KRLS Sports he is telling his girls to compete, have fun, and let the score take care of itself.

Ritchhart: “They’re the defending state champion for a reason. They brought back three starters and high quality freshmen. I told the girls we’re going to compete, not necessarily on the scoreboard, but we’re going to compete mentally for the next 2 days, give it our all and see where that gets us.”

DCG has all of the weapons to make another run to Wells Fargo Arena and play on championship night. Only losses have been to class 5A Ankeny and Johnston and to Sioux City Heelan. The Phillies essentially ran through a strong Little Hawkeye Conference unbeaten and are the odds on favorite to win back-to-back class 4A championships. Live coverage can be heard on 95.3 KNIA tonight beginning at 6:40.