With March Madness just days away, the madness starts early for Nebraska high school hoops, with girls district basketball ending this past Thursday night and the boys district tournaments starting today, Friday, Feb. 28.

The Silver Hawks will start their road to Pinnacle Bank Arena and the state tournament tonight, with a home match up against Omaha Northwest High School with tip off at 6:30 p.m.

“We’re pretty excited,” said freshman guard Rylan Smith. “It’s most of the guys on the team first district game.”

The Northwest Huskies are just 4-18 on the season, with two of those wins coming against Omaha Bryan. Last week the Hawks ended the regular season with a dominant win against the Omaha Bryan Bears 84-56.

Omaha Northwest does not have an explosive scorer on their team, as no player averages more than 11 points per contest. However, the Huskies do have a balanced scoring attack with three different players averaging over 10 points per game.

“They are a really good rebounding team. They like to get out and run and can pass the ball well,” said Smith. “But if we do the three big things, communication, transition and effort, we should have a good shot to win.”

The Hawks themselves will try to continue the momentum and play from their last regular season game against Omaha Bryan.

“We just got to keep our confidence going and our momentum rolling,” said Smith. “If we win this game we will have our first win streak of the season and we’ll be one step closer to state.”

If the Hawks win this game they will move on to play Millard North, the second ranked team in the state, in the district semi-final game on Saturday Feb. 29 at a time to be determined at Millard North High School. However, with a Southwest loss against the Huskies, the Silver Hawks season would be over unless an unlikely wild card spot was given.