The Norwalk girls basketball team’s road to Wells Fargo Arena will go directly through the home court confines of the NPECC. The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union released its girls basketball pairings on Wednesday, announcing the fifth-ranked Warriors as the top seed in Class 4A, Region 5. Norwalk will need to win a pair of home games to clinch the program’s first state tournament berth since 2007.

The Warrior girls, who enter Friday’s regular season finale with a 19-1 record, will host Des Moines Hoover or Bondurant-Farrar in a regional semifinal on Saturday, February 22, at 7:00 p.m. The other Region 5 semifinal will feature 13th-ranked Pella hosting Oskaloosa or Knoxville. The regional final is set for Tuesday, February 25, at the home gym of the highest remaining ranked team.