The Prescott Cardinals defeated the St. Croix Central Panthers by a score of 52-31 on Tuesday night in Hammond.

For the 2-2 Cardinals, it was the second game of conference play, and they more than met the challenge. After starting the season 0-2 in non-MBC games, they have since won two straight. After the buzzer beater by rising star sophomore Violet Otto last week against Somerset, they completely blew out St. Croix Central to move into a three-way tie at the top of the Middle Border Conference with Baldwin-Woodville and Ellsworth.

This high level of play is nothing new for a Cardinals program that has won the conference four times in a row.

A block by Leah French allowed Prescott to turn an early two-point lead into 4-0. Rory Zuehlsdorf followed that up with a steal and fast break to push that lead out to six.

Late in the first period with the Cardinals already up by 10, back-to-back three-pointers by Hannah Schommer and Lila Posthuma brought their lead to 27-11. They went into the half up by 15 at 32-17.

The second half looked like it would be more of the same after the Cardinals got out to a 12-2 run to make it 44-19, but the Panthers bounced back to outscore them 12-8 over the final 11:00 of play. Prescott still beat them by 21 as they improved to 2-2 overall and 2-0 in Middle Border Conference play.

Head Coach Owen Hamilton says they’re feeling pretty good right now.

“I know a 2-2 record doesn’t always look great and can be disappointing, but the girls have the right mindset and look at it as an opportunity to keep getting better while taking the wins we can get out of it. Overall, feeling good and looking to ride the wave,” Hamilton said. “SCC was a good game for us to get a dominant win. I challenged the girls to do a lot that game, and they really held up their end. We were trying to hold them under 30, and they hit a last second shot to get above that. Overall, very impressed.”

Prescott will play three games this week. They will host St. Croix Falls for a non-conference matchup on Tuesday at 7 p.m. before hosting Altoona on Thursday at 7 p.m. to continue MBC play. Finally, they will play at UW-River Falls in a tournament against Eau Claire Memorial at 5:45 p.m.

Ellsworth

The Ellsworth Panthers beat the Amery Warriors 58-49 in Amery on Tuesday night and lost to the Durand-Arkansaw Panthers 60-47 on Thursday night.

The Panthers are now 3-2 on the season but a perfect 2-0 to co-lead the Middle Border Conference with Baldwin-Woodville and Prescott. This is a great start for a team that finished last year 12-13 overall, 5-9 in conference play and ended on a five-game losing streak to close the season.

Tuesday’s game played pretty even offensively for the Panthers as they scored 28 in the first half and 30 in the second half. The difference is how their defense played in the first half, limiting Amery to just 20 points while the offense kept doing its job.

Morgan Halverson led the way offensively for the Panthers scoring 22 points, including hitting on 9-19 from the field, 4-8 from the line and chipping in a half dozen rebounds and a couple steals. Molly Janke also figured prominently into the box score as per usual posting a double-double with 16 points scored behind 5-15 from the field, 5-5 from the line and leading the team in rebounds (13), assists (7) and steals (3).

Unfortunately, even though they were statistically better in every offensive category, their success didn’t carry through to Thursday.

It’s probably not fair to say the game was lost in the opening minutes of the game, but if it weren’t for starting with a 12-0 deficit to open the nigh, it would’ve played close throughout. Emma Brown sunk a three-pointer to get the Panthers moving in the right direction, but the hole only got deeper from there as Durand went on another 9-0 run to make it 21-3 with 8:16 remaining in the first.

The Panthers grabbed some momentum from this point forward and outscored the Riverhawks 16-9 the rest of the way. With 1:30 left in the period, the Panthers had shrunk the lead to 28-14 when Janke sunk a three and pulled the Panthers within 11. That deficit held, and they went into the half down 30-19.

The second period was basically shot for shot with Durand with their team scoring 30 points to Ellsworth’s 28 to finish the game out. It’s not the end result that the Panthers would’ve liked, but if it weren’t for that early hole, they would’ve won by a margin.

Head Coach Jason Janke says although he’d obviously prefer it if they had won more games, he likes the way they’ve competed so far.

“We have to play better on offense to begin games, and if we are shooting poorly, we have to get ever tougher on defense to compensate,” Janke said. “We prepare with the idea that we're playing to win, so we aren't 100% pleased, however, our wins over Altoona, River Falls and Amery are all good, quality wins. Two very good conference teams and a win against a Big Rivers school is a nice way to get things going.” 

Luckily, the loss this week was also against a non-conference team, so the three-way tie for the top spot in the Middle Border will hold until next week when the first place Panthers will host the first place Baldwin-Woodville Blackhawks. Janke says he expects them to be stout competition.

“We are focused on what it takes to compete with Baldwin-Woodville. I can't imagine they think we can play with them at all with the way they are playing. They have a very strong bunch of junior athletes who all played varsity ball last year,” Janke said. “All we can do is go to work and try to get better this week, we know how well-coached and what strong players that they have. They are very guarded with their film, the rest of the conference shares in our HUDL pool, so I am guessing they have some things they'd like to spring on us. We'll find out on Friday.” 

Tip off for Panthers versus Blackhawks is 7 p.m. in Ellsworth on Friday.

Dunn-St. Croix: Spring Valley

The Spring Valley Cardinals lost to Clear Lake by a score of 54-28 on Tuesday night, lost to Alma-Pepin 54-34 on Friday and lost to Bloomer 85-25 on Saturday.

In their third, fourth and fifth of five non-Dunn-St. Croix Conference games to open the season, they were defeated three straight games to move to 0-5 on the season.

Game one opened normally enough, Clear Lake got on the board with a three and Maddie Shafer answered back for the Cardinals to even the score. Rylie Fritz immediately got a steal, and Spring Valley seemed like it was in business. As the half progressed though, they fell farther and farther behind, eventually going into the second period down 23-11.

Fritz came out of the break strong, sinking a three to get Spring Valley moving in the right direction. Unfortunately, things kept going the wrong way for the Cardinals, and they slid further and further behind.

Overall, as a team they went 10-49 from the field, 5-8 from the line and 3-20 on three-point attempts. The silver lining player of the game for this one was Charli Vanasse who led the Cardinals in scoring with 11 while shooting 4-9 from the field, 3-4 from the line and was second on the team in rebounds with seven.

Friday’s game was marginally better. Although Alma scored the same 54 points as the Clear Lake did, the Cardinals increased their point total to 34.

Saturday was the real killer though as Bloomer won by 60. After a loss like this, though, the only way to go is up.

For a Cardinals team that is playing young, these first games are all about gaining experience and trust in themselves and their team, and having a five game non-conference cushion to open the season figures to be huge for them in their pursuit of finishing near the top of the Dunn-St. Croix.

Head Coach Sean Hoolihan says while their start hasn’t been what they’d like, they’re looking forward to conference play beginning this week.

“We have played really good early on with every team, but then we go on a stretch of turning the ball over too much and never really get back into it,” Hoolihan said. “Our girls are working hard, we just need to eliminate our turnovers and get shots at the basket. Conference play begins this week, and we are looking forward to getting better this week and forward.”

Dunn-St. Croix Conference play begins on Tuesday when the Cardinals will host Bloomer, and it continues on Thursday when they will host Glenwood City. Tip off for both of those games is at 7:15 p.m..