STATE RUNNERS UP

State runners-up; Mid-East co-champs, district champs, city champs .All of these fine sounding titles belong to the 1947-48 Northeast basketball squad Coach "Dawdy " Hawkins' crew came through with the best record of any Rocket cage squad, winning 16 games and dropping only four.

The Black and White ran roughshod over their first eight opponents before mixing with Creighton Prep. At the end of the battle a cold Northeast five had succumbed to the height and deadly accuracy of the Junior Jays.

The Rockets bounced back by trouncing Falls City and the stage was set for the city championship classic The Hawkinsmen came through, defeating the Links 30-22.

Grand Island was the next opponent on the cage slate and the Rockets outplayed the state champs for 28 minutes before losing out by a 42-37 count.

With the final regular season encounter approaching and sporting a clean conference record, the Rockets suffered a 36-34 setback in a double overtime battle.

The Rockets came through the district meeting in fine style defeating Lincoln, Nebraska City, and Falls City in order.

Northeast opened its bid for state honors by soundly defeating the Curtis .Aggies. The Black and White were forced to come from behind to defeat the Boys Town quint to gain entrance to the final fracas.

The state finals provided a rematch with Grand Island. In this contest the Rockets ran up against one of the smoothest cage machines in Nebraska prep history and went down to defeat 50-24