Down 15 points at halftime March 5, the Arlington High School girls basketball team battled back into its first Class C1 state tournament game in more than two decades.
The sixth-seeded Eagles cut No. 3 Milford's lead to just six points with a 12-3 run to start the third period at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln.
“I thought for a second, 'Man, we're really rolling,'” coach Tashia Wolf said. “Then they came down and made three 3s.”
Milford kept AHS at bay from there, cutting off the Eagles' season, 61-40. The first-round NSAA State Championships loss ended Arlington's year at 21-5 overall. It was just the school's third-ever state hoops appearance and its first since 2001 — during the 25th anniversary of the school's state championship season in 2000.
What made this Arlington squad the one to reclaim its school's past basketball glory?
“I think it was just the team unity, the camaraderie, the family, the love and the relationship that we have for each other,” Wolf said, her eyes still red from a postgame team meeting in the locker room. “They’ve had this goal in mind since they were in seventh- and eighth-grade. They talked a lot about it.”
Looking to the future, the prospective Eagles had said they would get to state when they were juniors and seniors.
“And they didn’t let up on that,” Wolf said.
Assistant coach Josh Hilgenkamp gave all credit to the players, too.
“The kids themselves are what made it special,” he said. “Basketball was just the conduit that got us here.”
On the court, Arlington overcame a season-opening loss to West Point-Beemer and a late blunder against 9-14 Fremont Bergan to end the year as one of the eight best teams in Class C1.
“Every time somebody kind of thought we were down or we had those little setbacks … the girls used that as some fire,” assistant Leslie Gubbels explained. “They used it to fuel and propel us into the next game. They knew that it wasn't the end on those.”
The Eagles' resolve resulted in a season 24 years in the making.
“That's what got us back and got us here to be able set that bar for the Arlington teams again and again,” Gubbels said.
Seniors Britt Nielsen, Libby Hegemann and Hailey O'Daniel were at the center of it all, Hilgenkamp said.
“There's three seniors that are incredibly great young women and great basketball players,” he noted. “They showed leadership.”
Milford picks up win
Arlington trailed Milford 35-20 at halftime March 5, but it also trailed the purple Eagles by 13, 16-3, just minutes into the state game at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
Hegemann hit a 3-pointer at 9-3, but the Eagles needed more to get back into the matchup and keep pace with C1's third seed.
Bench players Valeria Carvajal and Hayley Arp played their parts. Carvajal made two free throws and a jump shot during the second period, while Arp — a 6-foot sophomore — scored two first-half buckets, doubling her season scoring average.
“I think that they wanted to seize every opportunity that they were given,” Coach Wolf said. “They didn't want to go out on a low note.”
Arp played extensive minutes against Milford, competing against two 6-foot starters in the post.
“She did great,” Wolf said. “It's the only way I feel like we could have combated their height inside and their physicality.”
Still, AHS trailed by 15 points at halftime. It needed a spark and got it, scoring 12 of the first 15 points of the second half with Arp, juniors Emme Timm and Macy Wolf, and Nielsen all contributing to the scoring streak.
“I think that was their fight,” Coach Wolf said, explaining how the Eagles responded to their deficit. “They will themselves to win on a daily basis.”
It's been a common characteristic of a program that's won 42 games across the past two seasons.
“We might not always play the best, but they never let down — they always push,” Wolf said.
Milford pushed back in Lincoln, though. The No. 3 seed knocked down three 3-pointers in response to the Eagles' run, building its lead back out to where it started the second half — 15 points.
Arlington's opposition held onto the advantage from there and improved on it during a 12-4 fourth period.
Timm closed the final game of her 11th-grade season with a team-best 14 points. She knocked down two 3-pointers and finished with four assists — adding to her school record passing totals.
Arp, meanwhile, scored eight points as Nielsen capped her high school career with six. The Eagles' season-long leading scorer also had 11 rebounds, though.
AHS' Macy Wolf, Carvajal and Hegemann added five, four and three points, too, respectively.
Coach Wolf was proud of all of their efforts and how their season brought the community together for an afternoon at the Devaney Sports Center. At the end of a special season, though, she admitted how hard it was to come up with the words to describe it all.
“I just don't know exactly how to explain it,” she said. “It's a different feeling.”
CLASS C1 STATE BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
First Round
March 5 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center, Lincoln
No. 3 MILFORD 61, No. 6 ARLINGTON 40
AHS (21-5) 9 11 16 4 — 40
MHS (24-1) 19 16 14 12 — 61
Scoring: AHS — Emme Timm 14, Hayley Arp 8, Britt Nielsen 6, Macy Wolf 5, Valeria Carvajal 4, Libby Hegemann 3.
MHS — Izabelle Yeackley 16, Aylandra Roth 13, Shayla Rautenberg 12, Taylor Oldfield 11, Ashlynn Miller 6, Abby Crabtree 3.
