WILBER, Neb. - In the latest installment of an annual conference contest between Milford and Wilber-Clatonia, both teams shared the spoils, with the Eagle girls extended their excellent season with a dominant win while the Wolverine boys emerged from yet another close contest with a victory.  

 

GIRLS BASKETBALL: Milford (16-1) defeats Wilber-Clatonia (0-19) 80-20 

Sometimes, records and season results don’t matter when two teams go head to head. But sometimes they do, and this game certainly fell into the latter category. The Eagles are on pace for one of the best seasons in program history while the Wolverines have struggled overall this season, and both of those trends were extended on Friday.  

The Eagles looked the part of one of the better teams in Class C1 girls basketball on this occasion, flashing their balance on offense, strong team depth, and a pervasive ability to wreak havoc and convert takeaways into points. Milford hounded W-C with a relentless press all game, and the Wolverines struggled to settle in while the Eagles took full flight on the way to the most lopsided result of the year for both teams, a flat 60-point margin.  

Ayla Roth led the way with 18 points plus a handful of assists and steals. Shayla Rautenberg scored 16 and dominated on the glass and Abby Crabtree added 12 points off the bench. Kariss Rosenthal paced the Wolverines once again in her excellent freshman season, scoring eight points.  

 

BOYS BASKETBALL: Wilber-Clatonia (10-8) defeats Milford (5-11) 53-49 

Sometimes, like in Friday’s first game, you have an idea of how a game script is going to read. Other times, you have no idea at all how a game might turn out – and that certainly felt like the prevailing notion heading into Friday’s nightcap. Wilber-Clatonia had more wins and was playing at home, two factors in favor of the Wolverines, but the all-time series between the two sides is almost dead even, and this season both teams had already played in a ton of close games. 

That set the stage for a closely contested match, and that was exactly what these two teams delivered. The game was played within two possessions for almost the entire night: Milford’s largest lead was eight midway through the first quarter before the Wolverines grabbed the lead for the first time in the game late in the second off an Aidan Zajicek and-one; Wilber’s largest lead was five early in the fourth quarter before that was cancelled out by a Landon Roth three-pointer.  

The two teams traded blows and the lead throughout the night in a contest that felt like a professional game with both teams exhausting their timeouts and free throws making the difference: two Eagles fouled out in the fourth quarter, and Zajicek and Cash Keslar converted from the foul line in the final seconds to help the Wolverines escape with a four-point win, their seventh game decided by ten points or fewer in January alone.  

With Isaac Roth in foul trouble Landon stepped up to fill the gap for the Eagles, hitting five threes to score 19 points; Zeb Reil went 5-of-6 from the line to score nine and Gage Dunlap added eight important points off the bench. Keslar had a career day with 22 points to lead all players, while Zajicek was disruptive as usual for W-C with 15.  

 

UP NEXT: Both of these schools compete in the same conference tournament beginning next week 

 

NEXT ON OL RED: High Plains @ Meridian, 6/7:30 PM, on Tuesday, February 4