Indians get started off on the right foot against Rebels
BROKEN BOW - The Broken Bow girls basketball team began their 2020-2021 campaign on Thursday, Dec. 3 at home vs Arcadia-Loup City and Friday, Dec. 4 at North Platte St. Patricks with victories. Both wins came in convincing fashion, with the Indians picking up a 52-27 win over the Rebels and a 59-28 victory over the Irish.
“I really thought the kids played great defense we held both opponents to under 30% shooting and forced 26 plus turnovers in each of the first two games,” head coach Kelly Cooksley said. “I also thought we rebounded well for the most part winning the rebounding battle in each game.”
In the first quarter against A-LC, the Indians used a suffocating defense to hold the Rebels to five points overall. At the end of one-quarter of play, Broken Bow held a twelvepoint advantage at 17-5.
The second started off with Kya Scott missing a three on the outside. Callie White was able to muscle her way inside to get a rebound and basket to extend the lead to 19-5.
Kali Staples picked up the next two buckets for the Indians, by getting a steal and easy layup and then getting a jumper to go down on the next drive.
The fast-break points came in handy for Broken Bow as they increased their lead up to 33-5 at the half. It was Emma Schall who earned back-to-back transition layups and then Kya Scott was able to out-hustle A-LC defenders for another.
To begin the third, the Rebels were finally able to get their first basket in two quarters with a driving jumper by Jace Hurlburt.
The only other two baskets of the quarter, both came by the Indians. Schall was able to capitalize in transition with a breakaway layup and Halle McCaslin knocked down a three-point field goal.
After a slow first three-quarters of play in terms of scoring, the floodgates opened up in the fourth with the teams combining for 33 points.
It was Ellie Oxford who was able to complete a three-point play by getting fouled and still making her layup. The free throw was good by her cutting the deficit to 41-10.
Later on, 6’2” freshman for A-LC Chloe Carkoski was given the ball inside. She was able to earn two points with a layup.
Hallie Kaslon was also able to get in on the scoring for the Rebels with her second basket of the game. It was a corner three, making the score 47-18.
Off the bench, Graycee Oeltjen was able to tack on a few more points to Broken Bow’s lead with a corner three.
The Rebels were able to end the game with three more baskets. They were two baskets inside by Lindsi Loos and Reagan Williams, and a three-pointer by Ella Jaixen.
The only player in double digits scoring-wise in the game was Kya Scott with 12 for Broken Bow. Kassidy Cyboron finished the night with seven points and Kennedy Garcia had six points.
For A-LC, Oxford had seven points, Kaslon had five, and both Loos and Hurlburt had four points total.
Defensively, Cyboron had nine total rebounds, while Kailyn Scott had eight, and Kya Scott had seven for the Indians.
Carkoski and Loos both had nine boards to lead the Rebels, while Tatum Kapustka had eight, and Delanie Heil had four.
The next day, Broken Bow traveled down the road to play NP St. Patricks in their season opener. It was a close game in the first half, with the Indians only leading 24-18 at halftime.
In the second half, the Indians broke the game open with a 21-6 run in the third quarter. That was followed up by a 14-4 fourth for Broken Bow.
The biggest difference in the Indians victory over the Irish was the points off turnovers category. Broken Bow scored 31 of their points off turnovers, where the Irish had zero.
The leading scorer for the Indians was Kya Scott with 17 points and Cyboron had nine points. Pulling in 11 rebounds was Cyboron and Kailyn Scott had seven.
So far, this is the start that the Broken Bow girls were looking for. They have been able to get a lot of veterans on the team to step up and have gotten some great minutes out of younger players on the team as well which has really fueled their success.
The Indians took on Amherst on the road in their next game on Dec. 8. The hope that Cooksley has for the team, is just to continue seeing them get in shape and to keep playing at a high level.
“We need to get into a little better shape, and shoot the ball a little better,” Cooksley said. “I think the two are directly correlated and we will get better in both categories as the season progresses. Overall not a lot of complaints, our JV went 2-0 and our varsity is 2-0!”