The Panthers traveled to Chippewa Falls on December 22nd for a non-conference game, looking to get back into the wincolumn after 2 straight hard-fought losses. The opponent being a “big school” from the Big Rivers Conference did not deter the visitors, as Brianna Giese forced a turnover on the first Cardinal possession by taking a hard charging foul. Giese’s toughness, she was forced to leave the game with a bleeding lip, set the tone, as the Panthers won going away, 70 – 50 to head into Christmas break on a high note._ The visiting Purple wasted no time on offense in the Chi-Hi gym, as Lily Puhrmann poured in 7 first-half points, all in the early going. Five Panthers got in the scoring column in a 38point barrage in the opening half, with Autumn Earney leading the way with 19._ “We were very focused on coming out with great energy,” said Head Coach Jason Janke, “we dug such a hole for ourselves last Friday and we discussed, quite a bit yesterday, about coming out with a fire and intensity right away. I thought Brianna drawing that charge right away was critical. It sort of sets the tone on toughness when we do that. Thank goodness she wasn’t hurt badly, she had a bloody lip, but that’s way too trivial to keep that kid down! Once we got some rebounds, we got a few run-outs and then Autumn hit a hot spurt that really forced Chippewa to have to force shots, I think.”

The Panthers nearly repeated their run in the second half, opening with a quick 6-0 run that put the hosts on their heels for the rest of the game. Despite some enough timely shooting to stay in the game early, the Cardinals could not keep pace with the Ellsworth duo of Earney and Molly Janke in the latter half, as the two combined for all but 3 of the 32 second half points._ Earney tied her own Ellsworth girls basketball school record of 37 points, while Janke tallied 16 to go with a strong floor game. Puhrmann added 7 and Ava Brookshaw 6. Several Panthers “filled a stat sheet” with Earney taking such control of the game scoring-wise: Hayley Bach had 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals; Janke added 9 rebounds and 6 assists; Brookshaw snared 6 rebounds & 2 steals; Giese fed teammates for 3 assists, grabbed 4 rebounds to go with the aforementioned charge; and finally, Puhrmann added 8 rebounds._ “Overall, we were very happy with the way the kids came out of the locker room both halves,” said Janke, “we had our dips to be sure, but we played together about as well as we have since the second half of Baldwin-Woodville, and we really did a nice job of moving the ball on offense, when we didn’t have a fast-break.”

In regard to Earney’s nearly record-breaking performance, Janke had this to say about the All-Conference guard._ “Autumn is so smooth out there, and gets on such runs, that I really never keep track of points. I had no idea she was that close to breaking the record again, but I did tease her about missing a couple of easy buckets early in the game,” laughed Janke. “In all seriousness, we’re always happy for success that comes within a team concept…we got, what for us was, a huge win against a Big Rivers’s school. Autumn is way more happy about that than any individual record. What’s neat about our kids is that her teammates get excited about her exploits, while also relishing a win. We have some solid rebounding going on at times, and they are quick to try to find Autumn down-court when the situation fits, and trying to stop Autumn one-on-one in the open court is no picnic for opponents, especially when her jumper is falling!”

Earney recently made the Wissports.com list of Senior Most Outstanding Shooters List_ for 2020-21, along with conferencemate Isabella Lenz of Prescott.