After the Panthers toppled two of the Middle Border Conference’s (MBC) top three teams in New Richmond and Somerset to close the regular season, they traveled to Baldwin-Woodville for the WIAA Regional Semifinal last week Tuesday. The Blackhawks took a 30-26 lead into halftime, but Ellsworth outscored the home team by 14 to advance to the Regional Final after a 62-52 win.

“Our team was very confident going into the first round of playoffs,” Coach Jordan Petersen said. “We had built momentum the last week of the regular season and finally got over the hump and were able to win some close games.”

Ellsworth traveled to Altoona to take on the 16-7 Railroaders, who finished third in the Cloverbelt West behind Fall Creek and Eau Claire Regis.

With just over 12 minutes to play trailing 53-46, Tanner Pechacek went up for a strong layup and sunk the and one basket to make it a four-point game. Down five at 12 minutes, senior Mason Anderson drove, faked, got his own rebound and finished the put back. At 11 minutes, Jack Janke stole it and also finished on a rebound put back. Altoona hit a three and Janke answered with his own make from deep to make it 64-59.

Junior Spencer Schultz drove, kicked it to Pechacek and floated to the perimeter, got the ball back and hit another three. The Panthers trailed 67-62 before a Railroader went to the line to shoot bonus free throws Schultz hit another three with just two minutes to play, followed by a deep three pointer from Anderson. Pechacek found a layup and It was 89-87 with 1:05 to play before Altoona sunk two penalty shots. Anderson backed his defender down from the three-point line and found Pechacek for another two with a slick bounce pass behind the back. The Panthers trailed 92-89 with 19 secondsto play but could not connect on a final shot. Altoona won, 94-89. Altoona hosted Somerset the following evening and defeated the MBC team, 59-54.

Ellsworth hadn’t scored 80 points as a team this season but found themselves up for the task of a high scoring affair.

Looking back on the 2020-2021 season, this Panther team grew by leaps and bounds.

“The growth we had this year was tremendous,” Petersen stated. “We had 4 games throughout the year decided 10 points or less and those games really come down to a few possessions here and there._ The last couple weeks we were able to push through and win those games that we didn't at the beginning of the year._ It was awesome to see a team come together and trust each other and never waiver._ We had several games where teams had runs and the players never flinched or gave in._ That is what I am most proud of with this group._ Their ability_to overcome and play together.”

The Panthers bring back both leading scorers from the loss at Altoona. Juniors Jack Janke and Spencer Schultz combined for 53 points in the loss. Anderson finished with 18, while sophomore Sam Kollbaum added nine. Pechacek added five and senior Shane Lange finished with a pair of points.