There’s no denying the value of a quality center.

Having talent at the No. 5 position is a luxury every coach treasures.

On Friday night, Weatherly’s post player - senior Grace Miller - showed how beneficial it is to possess skill in the paint.

Miller poured in a game-high 16 points and also pulled down 12 rebounds to help the Wreckers pull away from Lincoln Leadership for a 41-20 victory in the quarterfinal round of the District 11 Class 1A playoffs.

“She takes up space; she alters shots; she gets rebounds,” said Weatherly head coach Brian Billig. “And you could see, when she gets the ball down low she’s going to make it.”

Miller did most of her damage - 12 points - in the second half as the Wreckers’ offense rebounded from a slow start.

Actually, it was a 6-0 run at the end of the second quarter on a pair of driving shots by Bethany Houser and another by Ashley James that paved the way for the bounce back.

That mini-spurt allowed fourth-seeded Weatherly (6-16) to grab a 19-10 lead at the break, and it established an opportunity for later success.

“We saw some openings,” explained Billig. “They really weren’t moving their feet on Bethany or Ashley, so we were calling some individual plays to get them going to the basket. We figured if we could get them to the basket, the bigs would help. We would have Grace or Emma (Kane) down low for the drop off, which we kind of set up for the second half. As you could see, it worked to perfection.

“They went zone, so we got Emma in the middle. We figured with them being up high, with Emma in the middle we had 3-on-1s or 3-on-2s down low, so Emma could shoot or dump the ball to Grace or Brianna (Pugh) cutting in. Whenever we got the ball in the middle, good things happened.”

Kane found Miller on the low block a couple of times in the third frame, and both Miller and Kane added follow-up shots during a 10-3 surge that pushed the advantage to 29-13.

The Lions (3-10) closed within 11 points on a three-pointer by Sienna Lane to open the fourth period, but more of the same from Miller inside extended the Weatherly margin.

“We were playing a little tight, and I kind of expected that coming off the big win over Marian,” said Billig of his team’s struggles early, during which it shot 5-of-22 from the field. “But once we settled in and took care of the basketball and ran our offenses, they settled in and figured it out ... They settled in, and they ran the offenses the way that we practiced them all week.

“We were concerned about the start, but we weathered it ... We just made some adjustments and threw some different offenses in, different wrinkles, and they seemed to do their job. It was just a matter of taking care of the basketball, making fundamental passes, and we got a bunch of layups out of them.”

HAT TRICK ... The win for Weatherly was its third over the Lions this season. The Wreckers posted a pair of eight-point wins in the other two games.

NO NEED TO SCORE ... Weatherly’s leading scorer, James, managed only four points in the contest, but wasn’t asked to score by her coach. “I think she was pressing a little bit in the first half,” said Billig. “I said to her, ‘We don’t need you to score tonight. I just need you to be the floor general and keep everything under control.’ And she was great.”

UP NEXT ... The Wreckers will now face top-seeded Nativity Tuesday in the semifinals.

LINCOLN LEADERSHIP

Landis 2-0-0-5, Rosario 0-0-0-0, Lane 3-0-0-8, Ferrer 0-0-0-0, Mackenzie 1-2-2-4, Pujals 0-0-0-0, Ortiz 0-0-0-0, Watkins 1-1-2-3, Florentino 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 7-3-4-20.

WEATHERLY

Kane 3-4-5-10, Gaydocsik 0-0-0-0, Houser 3-0-0-6, Davidovich 0-0-0-0, James 2-0-0-4, Pugh 2-1-2-5, Paisley 0-0-0-0, Miller 8-0-2-16. TOTALS: 18-5-9-41.

Lincoln LA 7 3 5 5 - 20

Weatherly 9 10 10 12 - 41

Three-pointers: LLA - Lane 2, Landis 1; Weatherly - None.