Girls Basketball

       The C-I Rangers are having a season but one thing you can count on about the Aitkin Gobblers. They are never going to give up no matter who the competition is, and they showed that Friday in a 105-44 loss at C-I. Gopher recruit Tori Oehrlein scored 53 points and dropped the Gobblers to 8-10 on the season. Kacie Kaiser led the Gobblers with 17, another good game for the junior inside. The Rangers raced out to a 30-8 lead halfway through the first half with Taya Hawkins and Annika Kalis scoring and Kaiser hitting a pair of buckets. Later in the half it was Eva Kalis scoring, and Tika May hitting a pair from the free throw line. Hawkins hit a free throw that started a Gobbler run and Kalis scored and Adah Williams hit two free throws that made the score 52-19. That was the end of the first half scoring for Aitkin as the Rangers scored the final nine points of the half. The second half was more of the same as eight straight points made it a 69-19 game when Kaiser scored to break the string. She then converted a three-point play to make it 71-24 and when Kate Palm and Eva Kalis scored it was 71-28. The Rangers kept up the pace and didn't back off. Kaiser scored the next six Gobbler points, Eva Kalis hit, Kaiser had another three-point play and Annika Kalis buried a three for the final Gobbler points. Following Kaiser's 17 was Eva Kalis with 8, Annika Kalis with 7, Kate Palm with 5, Taya Hawkins with 3 and Adah Williams and Tika May each with 2 points.

Gobblers    19  25  44

Rangers      61 44 105

         Hailey Munsterteiger scored 18 points Friday leading the Gobbler JV to a 44-31 win over the C-I Rangers. She had a trio of three-pointers in her total. Ada Samuelson had 8 points, Chey Shaffer added 5, Annika Kalis, Grace Hunter and Molly Franke each had 3, and Leah Palm and Charlotte Lundgren both had 2 points in the win.

Gobblers      14 30 44

Rangers        17  14  31

      The Gobbler C-Squad lost to Pequot Lakes Thursday at the Noel Bailey Gym 43-19. Natalie Shereck and Lynae Kinzer each had 5 to lead the Gobblers while Elsie Kyllonen had 4, Leah Palm had 3 and Paityn Hawkins added 2 points.

      The Aitkin Gobbler girls basketball team has had some tough losses this season but maybe none tougher than the 66-63 loss at Pierz Monday night at the home of the Pioneers. They fell behind early, bounced back, never led but tied the game late and then saw the Pioneers win it at the foul line, then saw two game-tying shots fall short. They deserved better in this one and in a game where the Pioneers made a dozen shots from beyond the arc, Aitkin saw their record fall to 8-9 on the season.

     The Pioneers jumped out to a 20-5 lead in the first half, but the Gobblers came roaring back. Kacie Kaiser scored, then Taya Hawkins scored, then Adah Williams hit and it was 20-11. Eva Kalis buried a three and it was 20-14. Later Kalis and Kaiser scored and that cut it to 21-18. The Pioneers had a run, but Kaiser hit a free throw, Williams hit two and Hawkins scored to make it a 43-32 deficit at the break.

     The second half was 48-35 early when Kaiser scored twice and after another Pioneer three it was Kalis scoring, then Kaiser, then Tika May and it was 51-45. Hawkins scored later to make it 59-51, Kalis scored and with the score 61-53 Kaiser buried a three, Hawkins scored and Annika Kalis nailed a three to tie the game at 61-61. That was the final field goal of the game by either team and came with three minutes left in the game. It was 5-2 from the free throw line the rest of the way. The Pioneers went up 63-61, Williams tied things at 63-63 with :53 left and Pierz got three from the line to make the final margin.

     Kacie Kaiser led the way with 25 for the Gobblers while Eva Kalis had 15, Taya Hawkins had 10, Adah Williams had 6, Annika Kalis had 3 and Kate Palm and Tika May each had 2.

Gobblers    32 31  63

Pioneers     43 23 66

      The Gobbler JV took one on the chin at Pierz as they lost 66-37. Chey Shaffer led the way with 14 while Ada Samuelson added 8, Hailey Munsterteiger had 5, Grace Hunter had 4 and Molly Franke and Charlotte Lundgren each scored 3 points.

Gobblers    11  26 37

Pioneers    34 32 66

     The Gobbler "C" Squad picked up an exciting 35-34 win over Pierz. Leah Palm led the way with 13, Paityn Hawkins and Izzy Spicer each had 7, Natalie Shereck had 6 and Lynae Kinzer added 2 points.

        The Aitkin Gobblers roared out to a huge lead at the half and rolled to 67-35 win over the Hinckley-Finlayson Jaguars on the road Tuesday night. Five players reached double figures in the win led by Adah Williams with 18, including four bombs from beyond the arc.  Tika May, Eva Kalis, Annika Kalis and Kacie Kaiser all posted 10 points in the game. Chey Shaffer had 5 points and Kate Palm and Hailey Munsterteiger both had 2 points in the win. Coach Kaija Davies after the win, "Proud of our group after the win against a 1A opponent. With five players out due to illness, it was a true team effort. Five players in double figures show the balance and unselfishness we're working toward. This was a great team win and we're continuing to focus on playing to our potential every night developing into a team that plays as a unit."

Gobblers   43 24 67

Jaguars     10  25 35

       The Gobbler JV also posted a victory, 59-16 over the Jaguars. Annika Kalis had 11 to lead Aitkin while Ada Samuelson added 8, Hailey Munsterteiger had 7, Charlotte Lundgren had 6, Natalie Shereck and Paityn Hawkins each had 5 and Lynae Kinzer and Grace Hunter each had 2 points.

Gobblers     33 26 59

Jaguars         6 10  16

       The Gobblers bounced back from a loss on Thursday night with a victory over East Central on the road Friday night by a score of 64-49. Kacie Kaiser scored 20 points to lead Aitkin while Kate Palm added 15 and Tika May had 12. Taya Hawkins had 7 points while Eva Kalis had 5, Adah Williams had 3 and Chey Shaffer finished with 2 points. Assistant Coach Henry Palm after the win, "This kind of win feels earned. After a stretch of tough losses, seeing the girls respond with effort and grit says a lot about their character. Hopefully this will build confidence and remind them what they are capable of when they play with that edge. A win like this can be a real spark going forward."

Gobblers     29 35 64

Eagles          24 25 49

The Players

Tika May-"I'm happy we got the win, the first half was rough. Second half we stepped up enough to get a substantial lead. Our shots finally started to fall, and our teamwork was going well."

Taya Hawkins-"I think we had to really dig deep for this win. We had a rough first half but came up with a plan and executed and ended up winning."

Kate Palm-"I think this was a good ice-breaker after the past couple of losses. It made us realize what we can and should do in our games to come."  

Kacie Kaiser-"I'm really proud of my team tonight. We started very slow, but we flipped the switch in the second half. We played very unselfish today and a lot of success came from that. After a loss last night and having a bit of a rough streak, this game was huge and hopefully we can continue on and finish the season out strong."

      Hailey Munsterteiger scored 12 points and Ada Samuelson had 10 to lead the Gobbler "JV" to a crushing 61-7 win Friday over the East Central Eagles. Annika Kalis had 7, Grace Hunter and Paityn Hawkins each had 6, Chey Shaffer and Izzy Spicer each had 5, Leah Palm and Natalie Shereck each had 4 and Elsie Kyllonen finished with 2 points.

Gobblers 38 23 61

Eagles        5   2   7

      The "JV" is 13-2 on the season.

      The Gobbler "JH" girls played a much bigger Pillager team Friday and lost a tough matchup 33-30. Coach Ryan Fowlds fills us in after the game, "We played one game against their combined team and they had mostly 8th graders. We started out in a man defense and just couldn't match their size and fell behind 8-2. We then switched to a zone and fought our way back to a 12-8 deficit. Just before half they switched to a 1-3-1 zone, and we have not seen that this year, it took some time to adjust. Halftime was 15-8 Pillager. We made adjustments at half and started attacking their zone with our dribble and penetration. We also hit four big threes, 2 from Abby Kalis and one each from Hannah Fowlds and Rehse Rikala. With one minute left the score was 33-27 Pillager. We put on a man press and created a couple of turnovers. After an Alayah Teal layup and a Zoey Baierl free throw it was 33-30 with 5 seconds left and we had the ball. I took a timeout and drew up a play, and the girls executed it well, but Pillager defended it well too. We got the ball to Hannah and she made a move to get a look from beyond the arc and shot it as best she could with two girls in her face and it went off the front iron, and we lost 33-30. I could not be prouder of the effort and passion these girls play with. They fought hard against every team we have played all season with many being older and much bigger than we were. Tonight was our final game, and we ended with a 15-8 record." The Gobblers were led by Abby Kalis with 8, Rehse Rikala and Zoey Baierl each with 5, Hannah Fowlds and Sam Stanton each with 4 and Alayah Teal and Mya Patterson each with 2 points.

  The 2025-26 girls' basketball schedule continues. Let's take a look.

Thursday, January 22--Mora at Aitkin

Monday, January 26--Aitkin at Pierz

Friday, January 30--Aitkin at C-I

Monday, February 2--Staples/Motley at Aitkin

Tuesday, February 3--Aitkin at Mora

Thursday, February 5--Aitkin at Pine City

Thursday, February 12--Denfeld at Aitkin

Thursday, February 19--Aitkin at Duluth Marshall