By Jason Janke

On Friday, Jan. 14, the Panther girls felt they needed to “make up” for a weak second half showing for the home crowd the previous week against Altoona. The visiting Chieftains, with conference leading scorer Hattie Fox in tow, however, were up to the task and jumped to an early 7-0 lead, but the Panthers did not push the panic button. Instead, Panther sophomore Molly Janke ran off nine straight points to tie the score and the battle was on.

The Panthers held a 33-24 lead at halftime, and despite stretching that lead to 11 at one point, had to rally late for a thrilling 68-62 win in a critical Middle Border showdown. The crowd on both sides could be found on their feet for many parts of the second half.

After Janke’s initial barrage, the Panthers settled into their most balanced attack in recent memory, with Aubrey Wittenberg igniting an exciting flurry of points against the Chieftains' trapping zone midway through the first half. Meanwhile, Ava Brookshaw buried a deep three-pointer and drained two free throws. Taylor Peterson completed an old-fashioned threepoint play, and Morgan Halverson was steady from the field with eigh first half points; When Jillian Griggs got into the act with tough rebound put-back, six different Panthers scored in the first 18 minutes of action.

“We really started slow the first few minutes,” head coach Jason Janke said. “But once we got right, the kids really executed our game plan very well. As it usually does in basketball, the offensive end gets a lot of the attention, but tonight’s game was about the defensive pressure applied by our smaller guards, led by Maria Harrington. She set the tone, and then Taylor (Peterson) and Aubrey (Wittenberg) were right there with her in pressuring the Osceola guard play all night for most of the court. We worked very hard at limiting their drives and open threepointers. Maria (Harrington) and Taylor (Peterson) took on the conference’s top scorer and did a fabulous job of making her (Fox) work extremely hard for every point.”

The second half was one for the serious basketball fan as it included almost everything, including some high emotions between the Panther student cheering section and the visitors. Once the Panthers stretched their lead to 11, the Chieftain faithful came alive when Ava Ulrich drained two mid-second-half three-pointers to tie and eventually put the green team in the lead. Once again, Wittenberg stepped to the forefront for Ellsworth, hitting two driving baskets to keep Ellsworth from losing control. However, Osceola was able to not only claw all the way back but led 60-54 with just under six minutes to play.

At that point, following a Panther time-out, the girls in home-whites went to work. Kayla Kressin crashed in for an offensive rebound and basket, Brookshaw executed a hoop-in-the-harm three-point play and a couple of Panther drives sparked a 9-1 scoring run for a 63-61 lead. After a nice recovery from a long pass by Brookshaw, she found Molly Janke trailing the play. Molly Janke gathered a rhythm dribble and hit a long three-pointer to bring the Panther crowd to their feet.

The Ellsworth defense dug in from there as they would allow only one more point in the final three minutes of regulation. Again, Harrington and Peterson traded duties on Fox, while the other Panthers sprang around the court looking to stop the other girls in green. The home court erupted as the final buzzer sounded in the 68-62 win.

“We felt the key tonight would be defense,” Jason Janke said. “Osceola has been in the 60s and 70s on several occasions and that wasn’t where we necessarily wanted to be with them. Now, they did get there, and you have to give them so much credit. Down 11 on the road, a lot of teams do not do what they did. They are extremely well-coached, and the Fox girl is a heckuva player. I can’t say enough about the defense, individually, played by Maria (Harrington), Taylor (Peterson) and Aubrey (Wittenberg). And, speaking of Wittenberg, we don’t win tonight if she doesn’t come out playing as aggressively and effectively as she did all night. Her eight points were absolutely critical as each basket seemed to ‘answer’ a big play by Osceola. She was fantastic, and then, you couple that with the overall balance and great defense our kids played, we were just very proud of their work.”

Molly Janke led a very balanced Panther attack with 19 points, followed closely by Halverson’s 14 and Brookshaw’s 13. Wittenberg tallied eight, Peterson and Griggs dropped five each and Kressin went for four points to go with her eight rebounds.

“It was a big game for our kids,” continued Janke. “I think that getting blown out in the second half against Altoona awakened something in them. It forced us to make some changes in the ‘small stuff’ we do in practice, and in our offensive and defensive philosophies, but mostly, I think the kids decided that ‘that’s not who we are’ – We have some kids really learning what it means to play a role, and star in that role – which is an aspect of basketball that I really believe works. These girls really love playing for each other and have shown it this week.”