Riverside Lady Braves Basketball Make State Competition

At 9 a.m. on Wednesday, March 6, the Riverside Indian School girls’ basketball team took it to the hardwood against Vanoss at the Big House at the OKC Fairgrounds in Oklahoma City.

Riverside entered the competition as the number two school in class 2A in the state. 

Point Guard Karliey Parker said it felt good to be at State and said they wanted to prove themselves this year. She scored the most points during the game.

“Knowing that I had stuff going on in my senior season, it just felt great; honestly, knowing that I had to get out there and show everybody who I am,” Parker said.

Some of her highlights included passes, shooting and free throws.

The Lady Braves finished the game with a buzzer-beater from Zakya Hogner.

“She's one of our youngest freshmen,” Parker said. “We don't cheer our underclassmen on. They don't cheer us on. We just go cheer on the team.”

She said the team pushes the younger athletes in practice.

“We're going to push them to their limit, and we're going to go at them,” Parker said.

She said the Lady Braves’ success came from the players' work of waking up early and practicing.

“I want to shout out my underclassmen. I want to shout out my sister for them doing their job,” Parker said. “Just getting out there and doing what they got to do.”

Lady Braves Head Coach James Kelley said winning the game was the first step.

“Our goal is obviously a goal ball. So, today was the first step,” he said. “And when you're first starting, like last year was our first year ever making it to state. So, those were really satisfying wins, but they were also really anxious with a lot of anxiety. So, today because we understand what our team's potential is, it's just a matter of are we going to take the correct steps in a proper manner with the proper poise? And so today it's a relief a little bit, but also, it's like you don't want to get too excited about it.”

Kelley said the first game at State was the best and smartest game the team has played all year, and the prior practice was also the best they’ve had.

“I knew that if that carried over into today that we were going to play the way we play today,” he said. “And a lot of our, some of our minor issues this year has been, can we calm down and can we play slower when the game slows down so that we can build leads? Because I know we're going to get stops defensively. So, it's going to be a matter of can we adjust to the other team because everybody's going to run us a zone. So, can we slow down and get what we want? And today, we did that.”

Kelley said he was glad to get his younger players on the floor.

“Because they're going to need these types of experiences because this is the next group that should be here,” he said. “So, I wanted to get them on the floor to get them some good, you know, some good feeling, get used to what it's going to be like to play here. So, I think it was really good for us.”

The team would then go on to prepare for the next game.

“I use a lot of principles, you know, coaching is basically a profession where you do a lot of stealing and using from other principles from coaches that have won,” Kelley said. “And John Wooden is obviously a legendary coach. And he always said ‘We don't practice and work on what the other team's doing. We're not going to stop everything we're doing to adjust to what they're doing. We're going to focus on what we're doing well and make the other team adjust to us.’ And so, that's been our focus is are we going to do the things that we do best that causes disruption and that offensively we know that we can do so that we can be successful. So that's been our focus.”

He said he was proud of the senior leadership.

“I've been telling them we're going to go as far as they're going to take us,” Kelley said. “And I think that we're going to go and do what our goal is this year.”

On Friday, March 8, the Lady Braves were beaten by Merritt to end their run for Championship Saturday.