How 2 of the state's best teams lined up a girls basketball game at Bradley

PEORIA — One of the state’s biggest high school girls basketball games will be played in Peoria.

Peoria Notre Dame (20-3), ranked No. 3 in Class 2A, and Class 3A top-rated Lincoln (20-0) will tipoff at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20 on the Bradley University campus, utilizing a vacant Renaissance Coliseum.

“It’s going to be a great opportunity for our kids,” PND coach Layne Langholf said, noting that this will be his team’s 11th game against a state-ranked opponent. “Honestly, they want to play the best. As soon as it got leaked that we might have a chance to play Lincoln, they all got pretty excited.”

The state-ranked matchup came to be thanks to some key cancelations, a social media post, and some help from a Bradley coach very familiar with the Notre Dame program.

After Peoria High and Lincoln agreed not to meet on Jan. 20 after previously facing one another in the Manual holiday tournament. That meant that Lincoln, which beat Peoria High in that No. 1 vs. No. 2 championship game, was left with an opening on their schedule.

Background: Why two of the state's top girls basketball teams canceled their anticipated rematch

Enter PND.

“If we get an opening, we would love to play,” Langholf said of what Lincoln told him in preseason when they had inquired about playing.

Unofficially, the ball got rolling on making this premier matchup happen thanks to a social media post. The verified X.com Irish girls basketball account replied to a post of the Peoria High-Lincoln canceled game news with a "Hello" accompanied by a waving hand emoji.

Another problem? PND’s schedule was already at its 31-game limit.

There, however, was a way to squeeze in the Lincoln game if the Irish canceled their Jan. 20 home game with St. Louis Vashon. The Irish had just attended their shootout in late November.

“I felt really bad because they’ve been nothing but great to us,” Langholf said of the reigning Missouri Class 4A state champion. “… That opened us to even having an opportunity to play.”

The seven-year coach gives a lot of credit to PND assistant coach Ryan Julius for helping line up the details during the whole chaotic process. A game at PND of this magnitude in The Kitchen, which has bleachers on only one side of the gym along with limited endzone sitting, would likely not be big enough to fit a potentially large crowd.

Luckily, a neutral court with a large capacity — 4,200 seats to be exact — was available. The 14-year-old Renaissance Coliseum was basketball-free next week with the Bradley women’s team on the two-game Missouri Valley Conference road swing at Illinois Chicago on Friday, then playing at Valparaiso on Sunday.

And it just so happens that the father of two PND star players has some pretty good connections on the Hilltop. Bradley men's basketball coach Brian Wardle is the father of PND starters Mya and Emy Wardle.

PND sisters: Sisterly bond something special for Peoria Notre Dame's newest basketball teammates

“With Coach Wardle and Bradley, he was instrumental in getting us even the opportunity to see if we could play it at Renaissance,” Langholf said. “… Thankfully we’ve got a little inside Bradley track with Coach Wardle, and he helped get it put together.”

A JV game will be played at 5:30 p.m. followed by the varsity contest. Tickets are on sale at the door; they are $5 for adults, $2 for students and free for fans 7 years and younger.

Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: IHSA basketball: Peoria Notre Dame vs. Lincoln play at Bradley