Cards peaking at perfect time with win at Ellsworth

By Andrew Harrington
Posted 3/5/25

ELLSWORTH – It was a regular season finale, but came with a playoff feel as Prescott and Ellsworth took the court to renew their rivalry Thursday night. Prescott completed the season sweep, …

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Cards peaking at perfect time with win at Ellsworth

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ELLSWORTH – It was a regular season finale, but came with a playoff feel as Prescott and Ellsworth took the court to renew their rivalry Thursday night. Prescott completed the season sweep, beating the Panthers in their house 69-48.

A 9-9 start was completely flipped on its head by Prescott junior Kobe Russell in an instant, making a hop-step layup, three-pointer, free throw and another tough bucket inside over a short span to open a 21-10 lead. With Prescott in the bonus, Ellsworth fouled a handful of Cardinals on the far end of the court to give away a few trips to the line with the lead extending to 26-10. The run finally ended with free throws from Ellsworth’s Gavin Klos, followed by a massive final stretch to trim the halftime score to 30-21.

“Sometimes we don’t take the ball to the basket, we settle a lot for three-point shots,” Prescott Head Coach Nick Johnson said. “We have a lot of three-point shooters, and we’ve stressed that we have to attack the rim.”

There was a bit of an interesting halftime show as Ellsworth girls basketball coach Haylee Yaeger and Prescott girls basketball coach Owen Hamilton dueled in a three-point contest. The event was sponsored by SwiftCurrent Connect. Yaeger won the three-point contest, with the two then squaring off from half-court for $100 to the winning program. They each got one to fall before Yaeger sank one final shot in sudden death to end it to a roar from the crowd.

Back to the second half, Ellsworth forced a few bends in the momentum yet could not piece together a large enough run to contend for the lead. With Ellsworth posts Braydon Anderson, George Rohl and Gavin Puhrmann all in foul trouble, the Panthers had to tread lightly defensively.

“Seeding’s already done, conference is already wrapped up and stuff, just go out there and take that game like it was a playoff game,” Johnson said. “Executed gameplan was very promising. I thought that was one of our best games we’ve played all year.”

Prescott has faced a couple of tough conference losses and a big non-conference win over Chippewa Falls in recent weeks. Now, they are finding the right things at the right time.

“We’ve had our ups and downs,” Johnson said. “Just to get that momentum going into playoffs was stressed a lot.”

Barrett Temmers was in his fourth game back on the court from an injury suffered during the football season. Johnson believes it was his best game yet since returning, posting 10 points and doing all the right things on both ends. Temmers was joined by Russell with 18, Emmett Otto with 13 and Eyan Miller with 10 in double-digit figures.

From Ellsworth’s perspective, this game against a strong Prescott team provides a late spotlight on areas of improvement before the playoffs.

“At times we looked good offensively and at times we were just really inconsistent, didn’t make any shots,” Ellsworth Head Coach Derek Staley said. “We got good shots from a lot of good shooters; we just didn’t make shots. I thought we battled, we hustled, we worked hard, we’ve just got to make shots.”

Ellsworth has a lot of shooters, but Staley said the ability of the talented bigs to do damage inside and open up the deep shot will be an x-factor in the postseason. The trio was in foul trouble for much of Thursday’s game, to which Staley said they just have to play solid inside like they know how to.

“We kind of gave them some dumb ones I thought, but yeah, we’ve just got to battle through that adversity,” Staley said.

The other crucial factor Staley cited for the postseason is Omar Coulson returning to full health. He has battled an injury in recent weeks, with Staley saying the Prescott game was his first at essentially full health in a while. Averaging 13.8 points per game, Coulson is a necessary piece to a postseason run.

Ellsworth takes on the winner of No. 5 Amery and No. 12 Spooner in the playoffs and Prescott takes on the winner of No. 8 St. Croix Central and No. 9 Baldwin-Woodville. With wins from both, the rivalry would be taken to a playoff matchup.

“As much as they present matchup problems for us, I think we do the same for them because of our guards that can get to the rim,” Johnson said.

Prescott Cardinals, Ellsworth Panthers, boys basketball, playoffs, rivalry game