The 2024 NSAA boys state basketball championships continue today with opening round games in classes B, C1, and D1.
Ansley/Litchfield begins play in the D1 tournament tonight at the Devaney Center in Lincoln. The Spartans are 20-3 on the season and have won nine in a row. This is Ansley/Litchfield’s second consecutive appearance at the state tournament and their third in the last four years as a co-op. A/L advanced to state by defeating Cambridge in the D1-3 district championship game 46-23. The Spartans will face Plainview tonight. Plainview is 17-7 overall and edged South Loup 55-53 in the D1-8 district championship game to advance to the state tournament. This will be the second meeting of the season between the two as they met earlier this season back in late December during the Burwell holiday tournament. The game was close with Plainview winning 41-38. Ansley/Litchfield head coach Matt Drew visited with KCNI/KBBN sports and talked about what they learned from the first meeting and what the keys will be to turn the result around tonight.
“You know we might have scored two or four points in the 4th quarter. Their 4th quarter man press kind of took us out of what we want to do so we’ve been working about how to maybe get some easy baskets out of their full court man press and just be more prepared for that. They have good athletes and good shooting so just making sure we know which ones are good shooters and which ones are athletes. We did an ok job of that the first time we played them of getting to their shooters but their defense was much better than maybe we thought it was going to be watching it on film so offensive execution. And I think we know who we are more than after a five days off Christmas break thing so that will help to. Just getting better throughout the year and more efficient in our offense.”
Tonight’s game is scheduled to tip off at 7:45 tonight and will be broadcast on KBBN 95.3 FM and kbbn.com. The winner of tonight’s game will advance to the state semifinals and will face the winner of Johnson Brock vs Riverside. On the other side of D1 bracket, top seed North Platte St. Pat’s will face GACC and Ainsworth will play Dundy County Stratton.
Listen to our full interview with A/L head coach Matt Drew
Opening round tournament games in Class B today will include (#1) Crete vs (#8) Platteview, (#4) Omaha Skutt vs (#5) Elkhorn, (#2) Norris vs (#7) Bennington, and (#3) Scottsbluff vs (#6) Omaha Roncalli. Class C1 opening round games include (#1) Omaha Concordia vs (#8) Malcolm, (#4) Ogallala vs (#5) Wahoo, (#2) Ashland Greenwood vs (#7) Doniphan Trumbull, and (#3) Auburn vs (#6) DC West.
