The Spring Valley Cardinals defeated the Elmwood-Plum City Wolves in Plum City on Thursday night by a score of 59-27. It was the Cardinals’ second win in a row and the last game of the regular season before the playoffs.

Their defense was strong all night long as they registered 15 steals and three blocks to go along with 43 rebounds and 12 assists.

Head Coach Sean Hoolihan is excited for the playoffs and says how far they go is going to come down to mindset, defense and whether the shots are dropping for them that night.

“I'm really proud of the girls how they finished. We had some good nights of practice, and that always helps to know that our focus is still there. We haven't always played pretty, but they've played tough, they've played hard and they took care of business,” Hoolihan said. “That was kind of our motto tonight, to come up here and just try to take care of business. If we can have confidence and be aggressive going into the playoffs, I like our chances.”

With these last two wins, the Cardinals finish the year with a 5-8 record in the Dunn-St. Croix and will begin their inaugural Division 5 postseason on the road when they travel to New Auburn to play the Trojans on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

If they win there, they will travel to the winner of the Luck and Siren round 1 game. In order to host a game at any point in the playoffs, they will have to win three straight games to end up hosting the sectional round of play in Spring Valley.

Elmwood-Plum City

The Elmwood-Plum City Wolves were defeated at home by the Spring Valley Cardinals on Thursday night by a score of 59-27. The Wolves have had a tough year where they will finish winless ahead of the playoffs.

In Head Coach Paige Saniter’s first year as skipper, she says they were more focused on development and building a strong foundation for their young team than they were on their actual record.

“We knew it was going to be kind of a rough year just because we're so young, Hailey is the only returning varsity player. So, our goal was to get 1% better every day. Sometimes we found that 1% in 40-point losses, sometimes we found it in 10-point losses and we’re still looking for that 1% going into the playoffs,” Saniter said. “So, we're just looking to give it our all, have some fun, finish on a high note and celebrate our two seniors that are playing for us.”

Hailey Webb finishes the season as the Wolves’ top scorer and says she’s looking forward to playing with her team in the playoffs.

“I'm excited. It's fun to have a good group of girls to play with. Even though we aren't getting the wins, it feels like a win here every day.” Webb said.

The first round of the postseason begins on Tuesday when the Wolves will travel to Royall to play the Panthers. Tipoff for that game is at 7 p.m.

Middle Border: Prescott

The Prescott Cardinals defeated the Osceola Chieftains by a score of 51-25 in Osceola on Thursday night.

In a highly successful year where they came up just one game short of their sixth consecutive conference championship, the Cardinals end the regular season with an overall record of 15-9 and an impressive 11-3 record in the Middle Border.

Even though they came up short of a trophy, Prescott still finishes the season on a high note and goes into the playoffs having won nine of their last 11 games. They can also take solace in the fact that they have two of the best players in the conference in Violett Otto, who finished fourth overall in scoring and Lila Posthuma, who finished top three in points scored, assists and rebounds.

This program has a strong supporting cast, and they will look to make some noise in the regional tournament which kicks off this week where they will enter as the three-seed.

Head Coach Owen Hamilton says he may not agree with that seeding designation, but at the end of the day, you get what you get. 

“We get a chance to prove everyone wrong and go on a run,” Hamilton said. “I think we’re all very confident about what we have going on. We’ve beaten the 1 and 2 seeds, so there’s no reason to be nervous against them, and we get to have a lot of fun along the way."

The three-seed still gets a first round bye, which is a huge advantage, so postseason play will begin for the Cardinals at home on Friday when they will host the victor from Tuesday night’s Spooner versus Barron game. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.

Middle Border: Ellsworth

The Ellsworth Panthers went 1-1 this week, first losing to the Prescott Cardinals on the road 63-52 and then finishing the season on a high note on Thursday, beating the St. Croix Central Panthers 49-40.

These were two solid performances by a Panthers team that saw a lot of ups and downs this season.

The Prescott game was actually closer than the final score would make it seem. The Panthers played with a lead for a good portion of the opening period thanks to a series of baskets early by star player Molly Janke before ultimately going into the half down by three.

The Cardinals’ second half 8-5 three-point differential ended up being the major difference in the final score, though.

Head Coach Jason Janke says the balance they’ve found as a team down the home stretch is going to make them dangerous in the playoffs.  

“It also frees Molly up to become more of a distributor. Teams can’t be so hyper-focused on her when Kayla Kressin does what she did against SCC,” Janke said. “Ava Brookshaw is also a fantastic threat. She’s not getting many open shots due to her recent shooting, but she drives the ball and gets to the line where she’s also very good.”

They will go into the playoffs on a hot streak, winning six of their last eight games. This is in no small part to the stellar play of Molly Janke who finishes the season number one in the conference in points scored and rebounds and number two in assists, falling just a half rebound per game short of the triple crown.

The final line for the Panthers as they finish the season in the heart of the Middle Border rankings is a conference record of 8-6. However, their 15-9 record overall is more indicative of the high level of play that this team is capable of.

Ellsworth enters the postseason as the four-seed, earning a first round bye, so they will host their first game in round 2 on Friday at 7 p.m. against the winner of St. Croix Falls and Osceola.

Big Rivers: River Falls

The River Falls Wildcats were defeated at home by the Menomonie Mustangs on Friday, 50-40.

It was a productive loss for the Wildcats who were coming off a two-game win streak and faced the number one team in the conference in the Mustangs for their final game of the season before the playoffs. River Falls hung tight throughout the first period and even went into the half up by two at 24-22, but Menomonie went on a run and pulled away in the second.

Hailey Quinn had a solid performance in the loss, continuing her great season with a 14-point outing to accompany a half dozen rebounds. Jordan Schwantz also had a productive night, leading the team in steals with three and pulling in a handful of rebounds. Finally, Jordan Torrez contributed heavily in the rebound department, netting 10 total and helping to keep the Wildcats in the game.

Head Coach Ian Sticht says he thinks they played a really good game, but in the end, they just turned it over 19 times and 15 of those came in the second half.

“They ramped up their pressure a little bit the second half too, and we didn’t handle it as well as we did the first half. We just made some silly mistakes that led to turnovers. They had 22 points off turnovers, and we had two points off turnovers,” Sticht said. “We're hoping to get another chance at Menomonie later this week. Friday was just a good reminder for us that we can compete with them. There's also a couple of things we didn't really want to show Menomonie, a couple of wrinkles that we wanted to leave out if we get another chance to play them. So, we're feeling good about that.”

With this loss, the Wildcats finish the season with a 7-7 record in the Big Rivers.

From here, they will go into the playoffs as the eight-seed and will host the Wausau East Lumberjacks on Tuesday. If they win this round 1 game, they will get an immediate rematch with the Big Rivers Champion on Friday when they go on the road to face the 11-2 Mustangs once again. Both these games tip off at 7 p.m.