The Broken Bow girls basketball team will begin play today at the NSAA girls state basketball championships in Lincoln. This will mark Broken Bow’s fifth overall appearance at the state tournament and their third appearance in the last four years. The Lady Indians are 19-4 on the season and advanced to the state tournament with a thrilling overtime win over Battle Creek to claim the C1-6 district championship. Head coach Kelly Cooksley visited with KCNI/KBBN sports this week and shared what the focus has been this week as they prepare for the state tournament.
“We’re just kind of focusing on ourselves. At this point in time you don’t have a lot of time to kind of turn around and see who you play…I mean you do but you don’t have a whole lot of time to prep and get everything in like you would for like a Battle Creek where we had eight plus days to kind of put stuff in for them. We’re just kind of taking care of ourselves and we’re just trying to focus in on GICC. Just some little things that they do. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel right now. We are who we are. The old adage, “The hay is in the barn.”
Broken Bow’s opponent today is GICC who enters the tournament at 23-2 and advanced to state by claiming the C1-3 district championship with a win over West Point-Beemer. Today’s game will be the last of the four games played in Class C1 and will take place at the Devaney Center in Lincoln tipping off at 3:15. The game will be broadcast on KBBN 95.3 FM and kbbn.com.
Other Class C1 matchups today will include (#1) Lincoln Christian vs (#8) North Bend Central, (#4) Bridgeport vs (#5) Minden, and (#2) Sidney vs (#7) Adams Central.
Opening round games in classes B and D1 will take place today as well. Matchups in Class B today include (#1) Omaha Skutt vs (#8) South Sioux City, (#4) Gretna East vs (#5) Waverly, (#2) Elkhorn North vs (#7) Scottsbluff, and (#3) Norris vs Beatrice. Class D1 matchups today include (#1) Pender vs (#8) Bancroft-Rosalie, (#4) St. Mary’s vs (#5) McCool Junction, (#2) GACC vs (#7) Centura, and (#3) Southern Valley vs (#6) Elgin Public Pope John.
Listen to our full interview with Broken Bow head coach Kelly Cooksley
