Anytime any combo of Cissna Park, Watseka and Milford meet in any sporting event, regardless of how successful either team is, the ante is upped in the longstanding Iroquois County rivalries.

When Cissna Park visited Watseka/Milford in girls basketball action Monday night, not only was it a rivalry matchup and the Warriors’ senior night, but also a battle of Vermilion Valley Conference unbeatens to determine which powerful squad would earn at least a share of the conference crown with one VVC game apiece remaining.

And despite heading to Watseka without forwards Sophie Duis and Marina Day, the Timberwolves were able to use a hot start from the outside to free room up for their frontcourt inside, riding that inside-out combo and a suffocating defensive effort to a 58-39 win to increase their VVC winning streak to 28 games and repeat as at least conference co-champions.

“This is always a great rivalry, no matter what the records are you can throw them out the window,” Timberwolves senior guard Addison Lucht said. “Usually it’s either their senior night or our senior night every single year, it just means something a little more and it was really special to get this win on their court.”

While Lucht, who paired her game-high 18 points with five assists, two rebounds, three steals and two blocks, was right that the records can be thrown out when these two rivals get together, the fact that they entered Monday a combined 46-5 and 18-0 in the VVC only added to the intensity. With the win, Cissna Park improved to 23-2 and 10-0 in the VVC with their 11th straight win, while the Warriors (24-4, 9-1) saw a six-game win streak end.

Against Watseka’s formidable 2-3 zone, the Timberwolves caught fire from deep early on. Josie Neukomm opened the game with her first of two first-quarter triples, a quarter that ended with Mady Marcott and Lucht burying tri-fectas of their own, Lucht’s just before the first-quarter horn sounded with her Timberwolves ahead 16-6.

Lucht opened the second with a 5-0 run of her own, extending the lead to 21-6 a minute into the second. The Warriors briefly trimmed their deficit to single digits when Kami Muehling buried a triple that made it 23-14 with 3:20 left in the half, but Neukomm’s third 3-pointer of the night just a dozen seconds later put the Timberwolves back up by double digits for the rest of the night.

“They shot well; we needed them not to shoot well,” Warriors coach Barry Bauer said. “We needed to shoot well and we didn’t. I thought we had some open looks early on and could have hung around a bit, but defensively it’s just a really tough matchup for us. Which, a lot of teams they’re a tough matchup for.

“I thought the effort was there, but we needed to shoot a better percentage if we wanted to stay in the game.”

As Lucht and Neukomm (15 points, nine rebounds, two assists, four steals) got going from outside early on, that freed up more room for senior forward Lauryn Hamrick to get going as the game went on. She scored seven of her 11 points in the third quarter, adding four boards and three assists.

“I’m able to just pound it,” Hamrick said of her freedom once defenses key on the perimeter. “[The guards] are able to pound it inside and then I’m able to kick right back out for the easy 3s.”

The Timberwolves were shorthanded a pair of post players in Sophie Duis and Marina Day, who both missed due to illness, but Neukomm said being shorthanded wasn’t going to deter a hungry Timberwolves team in arguably their biggest regular season game.

“I think tonight was more about each other,” Neukomm said. “We had two posts out and they play big roles in our game. I think we were mostly wanting to win it for each other, for our seniors and to go out with a bang.”

Both teams have their sights set on at least a repeat of last year’s postseason success – the Timberwolves were the third-place team in Class 1A while the Warriors made the sectional championship round in Class 2A – but first the Timberwolves will look to wrap up a repeat perfect VVC run when they host a surging Iroquois West on Wednesday.

With a team made up of a similar cast of characters from this year’s IHSA Class 1A State champion volleyball team – a program that’s made three state state trips – and the majority of last year’s third-place team, Cissna Park coach Anthony Videka knows this is the time of year his girls cherish.

“I think a big part of that pattern is these girls,” Videka said. “They’re the ones that step up and play in these big time moments. Winning a conference championship is no little thing, and they’ve gone to state four times in their high school careers. These moments, they’re ready for them.”