Milford pulls away from Malcolm late, wins first girls basketball state title

LINCOLN, Neb. - You have to be careful when throwing around the word “history” in sports, but for the 2026 C1 girls state title, it was fitting. 

Malcolm took on Milford, with schools looking for their first state title. In the end, Milford writes themselves into the history books.with a 66-52 the Eagles win, pulling away in the fourth quarter. 

“Proud of our girls, they’re tough, they’re disciplined, they’re resilient,” Milford Head Coach “And they’re very very coachable. They’ll do anything for their teammates to be successful.”

The Eagles aren’t unfamiliar with state final games. Many on the team part of the reigning C1 volleyball championship team and this same group fell short in the basketball finals last year, something Kylie Jakub says pushed the group this year. 

“It sucks being on the other side of this, it’s terrible,” Jakub said. “Knowing how it felt during volleyball, it gives you more momentum to go get that again because you don’t want to feel the falling short again so I just feel like it feels full circle because you just don’t want to see it again.”

Sophomore Shayla Rautenberg says none of it would have been possible without the support of the Milford community.

“We have so much support, our community is amazing,” Rautenberg said. “We have two student sections, the students and the little kids, they’re amazing, we have an amazing band, so we have a ton of support in our community.”