Gothenburg Girls' fall to Milford in High School Varsity Basketball on Friday morning, March 6th, 2026, in the semifinal round of the State Tournament; Milford to play Malcolm for State Title

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By: Evan Troxel

The #5 seeded Gothenburg Swedes Girls' High School Varsity basketball team fell to the #1 Milford Eagles by a final score of 63 to 51 in the semifinal round of the Class C1 State Tournament in Nebraska on Friday morning, March 6th, 2026, at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Gothenburg led by seven with 2:16 left in the second quarter, 30 to 23.

The Swedes led 33-30 shortly after halftime and then gave up 16 straight points and Milford never relinquished the lead.

Halsey Thomalla for Gothenburg scored 20 or more points in back-to-back games at the State Tournament as she totaled 24 points. She made six three-pointers and she made just two free throws.

On Thursday, March 5th, 2026, Halsey Thomalla scored 32 points against Ogallala, which you can read about that game story that I wrote about right here.

Abby Crabtree scored 24 points for Milford. She made four three-pointers and six free throws!

To start the game, Halsey Thomalla drilled a three for Gothenburg.

Then, Shayla Rautenberg made only the first of two free throws for Milford.

Zoe Beveridge then made a two-pointer for Gothenburg and the Swedes led 5-1.

Shayla Rautenberg then made a two for Milford.

Braelynn Muller then made a three-pointer for the Eagles and Milford led 6 to 5!

Lindly Anderson then made a three and Gothenburg took the lead back at 8 to 6.

Zoe Beveridge then made a two-pointer for the Swedes and Halsey Thomalla made another three for Gothenburg and they led 13 to 6 with 1:50 remaining in the first quarter.

Halsey Thomalla then made two free throws for Gothenburg and then she also made a three-pointer and the Swedes led 18 to 6 late in the first quarter!

Milford then got a two-pointer from Ashlynn Miller and ended the 13 straight points by Gothenburg.

Abby Crabtree then made a three-pointer with 2.7 seconds left for the Eagles from just inside three-quarter court by heaving it mostly straight and to her left at the end of the quarter and after one quarter Gothenburg led over Milford 18 to 11.

Crabtree made the three in Colorado on the basketball court based on the Herbie Husker and the "Nebraska" physical state outline shape/picture at the center of the court at the Pinnacle Bank Arena just south of the westernmost panhandle corner of Nebraska.

You can watch a highlight of that play on Twitter/X here from the NCN Sports Now (@NCNSports) X account: https://x.com/NCNSports/status/2029949428883186142.

Milford missed one free throw in the first quarter. Gothenburg missed zero free throws in the first quarter.

To start the second quarter, Abby Crabtree made two free throws for Milford.

Then, Ellie Wyatt made a three-pointer for Gothenburg.

Ashlynn Miller then made two free throws for Milford and the Swedes led 21 to 15.

Zoe Beveridge then made a two-pointer for the Swedes and they led 23 to 15 with 6:29 left in the second quarter.

After that, Abby Crabtree made a two-pointer for the Eagles.

Zoe Beveridge then made another two-pointer for Gothenburg.

Abby Crabtree then nailed another three-pointer for Milford.

Milford's Ashlynn Miller then missed a couple of free throws.

Shayla Rautenberg for the Eagles then only made the second of two free throws and Gothenburg led Milford 25 to 21 with 4:28 remaining in the second quarter.

Milford then got a two-pointer from Abby Crabtree and they trailed by just two.

Zoe Beveridge then made her first three of the game and the Swedes led by five, 28 to 23.

Gothenburg then made a two-pointer from Halsey Thomalla and the Swedes led by seven with 2:16 remaining in the second quarter.

Abby Crabtree then only made the first and third of three free throws (on my original scorecard, I thought she only made the first of two free throws) for Milford with 1:27 left in the first half.

Shayla Rautenberg then made a two-pointer for Milford and the free throw immediately afterwards and the Eagles trailed by just two at that point.

Maeli Kubicek made two free throws for the Eagles and after two quarters the game was tied at halftime 30 to 30. (According to my original scorecard, I think Gothenburg led at halftime 30 to 29).

Milford missed four free throws in the second quarter and five total in the first half! Gothenburg missed zero free throws in the first half.

For Gothenburg, the top scorers in the first half were Halsey Thomalla who scored 13 points and Zoe Beveridge scored 11 points. (On my original scorecard, I thought Zoe Beveridge scored 13 points in the first half and Halsey Thomalla only scored 11 points in the first half).

The top scorers in the first half for Milford were Abby Crabtree with 14 points and Shayla Rautenberg with seven points. (I think Abby Crabtree might have only scored 13 points in the first half).

To start the third quarter, Halsey Thomalla made a three-pointer and Gothenburg led 33 to 30!

Milford then scored the next 16 points.

Adalyn Cisneros made a two-pointer for Milford.

Then, Ashlynn Miller made a two-pointer for the Eagles and they took a 34 to 33 lead!

Ashlynn Miller then made a two-pointer and Milford led 36 to 33 with 4:20 left in the third quarter.

Abby Crabtree made a three for the Eagles and then she also made a two-pointer for Milford and they led 41 to 33.

Ashlyn Miller then made back-to-back two-pointers and then she made one free throw immediately afterwards to complete a three-point play and the score was Milford 46 and Gothenburg 33.

Zoe Beveridge made a two-pointer for Gothenburg to end Milford's 16 straight points.

Ellie Wyatt then made two free throws for the Swedes with 1:27 left in the third quarter.

Shayla Rautenberg then made a two-pointer for Milford.

Ellie Wyatt then missed two free throws for Gothenburg and the Eagles led over the Swedes after three quarters 48 to 37.

Gothenburg missed two free throws in the third quarter and they only missed two free throws through three quarters.

Milford missed zero free throws in the third quarter and they missed five free throws total through three quarters.

To start the fourth quarter, Halsey Thomalla made a two-pointer for Gothenburg.

Abby Crabtree made a three-pointer for Milford and they led 51 to 39.

Gothenburg then made three straight threes!

Lindly Anderson made a three and Milford led 51 to 42 with 6:22 left in the fourth quarter.

Zoe Beveridge and Halsey Thomalla each made a three-point basket and with 5:25 left in the fourth quarter, Gothenburg trailed by just three, 51 to 48.

Adalyn Cisneros drained a three and so did Kylie Jakub and Milford led 57 to 48 with 4:33 left in the fourth quarter.

Halsey Thomalla then made a three for Gothenburg to cut the lead for Milford to six at 57 to 51!

Ashlynn Miller then made a two-pointer for the Eagles and Milford led 59 to 51 with 2:28 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Abby Crabtree made two free throws for Milford with 46 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

Adalyn Cisneros made two free throws for the Eagles with 20 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.

Kylie Jakub then missed two free throws for Milford and the final score was Milford 63 and Gothenburg 51.

Gothenburg missed zero free throws in the fourth quarter and they missed just two free throws all game long!

Milford missed two free throws in the fourth quarter and they missed seven free throws throughout the entire game!

Gothenburg made 11 three-pointers!

The Swedes were just 4 of 6 at the free throw line after shooting a lot of free throws against Ogallala on Thursday.

Milford was 7 for 16 from three-point land in the game. The Eagles were 16 of 23 at the free throw line officially.

The top scorers in the second half for Gothenburg were Halsey Thomalla with 11 points and Zoe Beveridge with just five points.

For Milford, the top scorers in the second half were Ashlynn Miller with 11 points, Abby Crabtree with ten points and Adalyn Cisneros with seven points.

The scorers for Gothenburg in the entire game were as follows: Zoe Beveridge scored 16 points. She made two three-pointers.

Lindly Anderson made two three-pointers and totaled six points.

Ellie Wyatt totaled five points. She made one three-pointer and two free throws.

The scorers for Milford in the entire game were as follows: Ashlynn Miller scored 15 points. She made three free throws.

Shayla Rautenberg scored nine points. She made three two-pointers and three free throws.

Adalyn Cisneros totaled seven points. She made one three-pointer and two free throws.

Braelynn Muller and Kylie Jakub each made a three-pointer and totaled three points.

Maeli Kubicek scored two points by making two free throws.

#7 Fort Calhoun fell to #3 Malcolm 72 to 59 in the other semifinal game in Class C1.

Gothenburg (now 22-5) will play Fort Calhoun (now 25-3) at 11:00 a.m. Central Time on Saturday, March 6th, 2026, in the third-place game at Lincoln Southeast High School in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Heading into Saturday's games, it looks like both Gothenburg and Fort Calhoun are both undefeated against their common opponents so far this season.

Malcolm (now 27-1) will play Milford (also 27-1) at 11:00 a.m. Central Time on Saturday, March 6th, 2026, for the Class C1 State Championship in the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Milford defeated Malcolm 66 to 64 on January 8th, 2026, in Milford.

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