LINCOLN, Neb. - Trailing by as many as 15 points in the first half and by 12 at the halftime break, #3-seed Oakland-Craig fully flipped things around in the second half and rallied to upend #4-seed Elkhorn Valley 51-46 in the 2025 C2 Girls Basketball championship game on Saturday afternoon at Pinnacle Bank Arena. 

Saturday's only championship game to feature neither of the bracket's top two seeds was the Class C2 championship, which pitted undefeated #4-seed Elkhorn Valley against #3-seed Oakland-Craig, the tournament runners-up from two seasons ago.

The Falcons of Elkhorn Valley got off to a flying start - seniors Karlee Broberg and JJ Black were big in the first half, combining for 20 points to help EV outscore OC 19-9 in the second quarter and take a 30-18 lead into the halftime break.


The Falcons led by as many as 15 in the first half and were looking likely to complete their unbeaten season with a state championship - but finally, the Knights began to push back in the second half. O-C scored the first seven points of the third quarter before EV countered with back to back threes to restore an 11-point lead. Then Adi Rennerfeldt hit a driving layup and a three in the third to pull Oakland-Craig within five going into the fourth quarter, and then the Ray sisters took over in the final frame.


After Bailey Pelan put Oakland-Craig in front for the first time since the first half with a three-pointer, older sister Briar Ray buried a driving layup, part of a 9-1 Oakland-Craig run in the middle of the period, and then younger sister Hilary hit the biggest shot of the game, a corner three off a dish by Rennerfeldt to put the Knights up by four - and that locked up the comeback win for Oakland-Craig, with a final score of 51-46.

"We switched to all half-court defense in the second half, we didn't press anymore. We just talked about grinding it out, one possession at a time, getting stops and scores, stops and scores," Oakland-Craig head coach Scott Guzinski said. "And I thought we were really doing a good job of that when we got it to five, and then they hit two threes in a row and went up by 11 again. We had to get the momentum back. And the kids did that - they just got stops, and I think that was the biggest thing."

"I heard Coach Guzinski tell me to shoot it, and I was like, 'Alright!" Hilary Ray said of her critical shot, which came with 22 seconds left in the game. "So I shot it, even though I had missed like two in a row, I knew we had practiced really hard for it, and shots will go in. So I just took it - I was wide open, and it was a great pass."

Rennerfeldt led all players with 16 points along with eight rebounds; Briar Ray finished with a double-double, ten points and ten boards. Black had a double-double of her own with 12 points and ten rebounds, but all 12 of those points came in the first half. Broberg led the Falcons with 14 points. 

SCORING BY QUARTER:

Elkhorn Valley: 11 | 19 | 6 | 10

Oakland-Craig: 9 | 9 | 13 | 20