By pulling off a state championship sweep Saturday in Kansas, the
Central Plains (Claflin, Kan.) boys and girls basketball teams extended their collective win streak to 164 games.
Under the direction of head coaches Pat Stiles (girls) and Brett Rolfs (boys), the Oilers pulled off the sweep for the second consecutive season. The girls finished 27-0 while extending their overall win streak to 111 games and the boys were 27-0 with 53 wins in a row dating back to March of 2017.
The girls opened state tournament play with a 63-28 win over Montezuma-South Gray in the Class 1A quarterfinals, and then upended Kensington-Thunder Ridge 78-36 in the semifinals before pulling away for a 52-34 win over Hanover in the finals to run their state record winning streak to 111 straight games since dropping a 66-58 decision to Ellinwood on Feb. 24, 2015.
Hanover stayed with Central Plains early, but the Oilers ran away in the second half behind Top 100 junior recruit
Emily Ryan, who tallied 29 points, four rebounds, six assists, six blocked shots and three steals. She has over 2,000 points in her career.
The Central Plains girls have won six state titles in a row.
Junior Delaney Rugan provided some offensive firepower with 21 points in Wednesday's quarterfinal win and added a double-double 10 points, 10 rebounds and two steals in the title game. Ryan scored 33 points in Friday's win over Thunder Ridge, while Addison Crites added nine points and Rachel Lamatsch and Rugan scored eight points each.
Along with Ryan, key contributors
Addison Crites,
Rachel Lamatsch and
Delaney Rugan return for Stiles next winter as the Oilers go after their seventh straight state basketball title. The Oilers outscored 27 opponents by nearly 50 points per game on average this season.
According to the National Federation of High School's records book, Central Plains' win streak matches Nebraska power Guardian Angels Central Catholic (2001-06) for eighth nationally. Baskin of Louisiana holds the national record of 218 straight wins, according to that same source.
Central Plains junior Emily Ryan has already topped 2,000 points for her career and is considered one of the nation's top recruits in the Class of 2020.
File photo: Geoffrey Sager
Stiles' daughter Jackie is a Kansas legend who owns the single-game, season and career scoring records at Claflin High School with 71, 1,252 and 3,603 points respectively.
The boys earned the football-boys basketball sweep by upending St. John-Hudson 40-28 in the Class 1A state championship game Saturday.
With the state championship win, the Oilers extended their win streak to 53 straight games since dropping a 51-45 decision to St. Johns on March 4, 2017. The state record is 63, held by the team they just beat --- St. Johns.
Senior guard
Alex Hickel led the way with 21 points in the championship game and had 47 over three games in the tournament.
Brett Liebl scored six points in the title game and led all Oilers with 51 state tournament points, while
Devin Ryan scored 24 points and dished out 24 assists for the tournament.
Myles Menges, a 6-foot-4 senior, produced a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double in the quarterfinals and scored 22 points for the state tournament.
As Central Plains makes its run at St. John's record streak next winter, Rolfs will build around Oeser,
Bralen Thompson,
Jerred Bieberle,
Ethan Hurley,
J.J. Heredia and
Tyler Holmes.
