The Waterloo Junior High School girls basketball team defeated Belleville Central on Thursday, 31-8, to win a Southern Illinois Junior High School Athletic Association Class L regional title and advance to the SIJHSAA state tournament at Rend Lake College this Saturday.

The Bulldogs are 14-12 on the season.

“We struggled to win games during our conference season, but started playing better during the conference tournament and in most of our games since then,” WJHS head coach Jim Rader said, “It’s been an unusually challenging season with some injuries and not having our full roster for all the games. We’ve worked to stay positive and the girls still show up and work to be competitive no matter what the roster situation is from game to game.”