The 2021-22 iteration of the Ellsworth Panthers girls basketball team will be remembered as one of its best in the last two decades, as the lady Panthers reached the WIAA Division 3 Regional Championship game for the first time in 26 years, which was a 76-44 loss to the Saint Croix Falls Saints.

The Saturday night, Feb. 26 Regional Championship game for Ellsworth was on the road against Saint Croix Falls, a school that has a long history of winning regional titles and making sectional final appearances.

Going into the game, the fifth-seeded Panthers were coming off of two wins, a 61-24 victory at home against Spooner and a 65-57 upset win on the road against the #4 seeded Northwestern Tigers. The Saints had only played one previous game, a 63-31 victory at home against Osceola, to reach the regional final.

The two teams met earlier this season on Saturday, Jan. 29, in a neutral site game at Somerset High School. Saint Croix Falls defeated Ellsworth 75-50 in that game. Ellsworth head coach Jason Janke spoke about the rematch with Saint Croix Falls before the regional final.

“We’ve got to keep their big girl off of the boards,” Janke said. “Last time she had 20 boards against us. We’ve got to rebound the ball better and we’ve got to shoot the ball better. We’ve put some things in offensively to combat some of those things. They’re deeper than we are. We need to keep the score in the 50s and play great defense.”

While the game plan for Saint Croix Falls changed between the first and the second meeting, the outcome didn’t. Janke spoke about keeping the game in the 50s; Saint Croix Falls had 39 points in the first half and was getting anything it wanted offensively.

Leading the charge for the Saints was Kelsey Cooper, who Janke spoke about trying to keep off of the glass. Her final stat line included 13 points, 12 rebounds and three assists. Her offensive rebounding ability gave already great guards multiple scoring opportunities. Lucy Belisle and Brianna McCurdy took control of the game and posted 23 and 12 points respectively.

Coach Janke spoke about the game after the 32-point loss on the road to the #1 ranked team in the region.

“They’re longer than we are, they have (Cooper) in the middle and a couple of long wings,” Janke said. “They’re good athletes and that really killed us. They were patient, dis-

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Ellsworth senior Ashley Koch holds the ball near the free throw line while looking for an open teammate. The regional final game against Saint Croix Falls was the final high school game of Koch’s career. Photo by Gaylen Bicking

Ellsworth sophomore Kayla Kressin goes for the jump ball at the beginning of the road regional final game against Saint Croix Falls on Saturday, Feb. 26. Photo by Gaylen Bicking PANTHERS

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sected our defense early and got some second shots. We overcompensated and they hit outside shots. There isn’t much to complain about. Give those kids credit, they played really well.”

Janke didn’t have a lot to say about the game at Saint Croix Falls because it had been decided in essentially the first six minutes of the game. The Saints jumped out to a huge lead and there was little Ellsworth could do to slow the Saints’ dynamic offense.

However, now that Ellsworth’s season is over, Janke had a chance to reflect on the year, some of the expectations before the season, and how far the team made it. As Janke always says, the preseason prognosticators had Ellsworth finishing in the bottom half of the Middle Border Conference this year.

The Panthers finished 8-6 in conference play and at one point led the standings with less than a month to play in the regular season. In addition to that, the starting lineup of four sophomores and a freshman – by far the youngest lineup in the conference – made it to the regional final for the first time in 26 years. There is a lot for Janke to be pleased with.

“I look at it favorably,” Janke said. “We got to the regional championship for the first time in 26 years. Our program hadn’t done that in these kids’ lifetime. We won 14 games and assured ourselves a winning record. That hasn’t happened for the girls in Ellsworth in well over a decade.”

That aforementioned young starting lineup of sophomores Molly Janke, Maria Harrington, Ava Brookshaw, Kayla Kressin and freshman Morgan Halverson, made significant strides in their play this season, especially in the biggest moments of the year.

Perhaps none more than Molly Janke, who dropped an astounding 38 points in the 65-57 regional semi-final game on the road against Northwestern. Her scoring was balanced and included seven three-pointers, six two-pointers and five free throws. Brookshaw tallied 12 points and made four of her last six free throws to ice the game for Ellsworth.

Through the ups and downs of the last two seasons, this group has been through everything together. According to Jason Janke, that’s part of the reason his team had success this year and overcame struggles throughout the season.

“I’m thankful, this is a group that our staff has been around for a while, we’ve been through it all together,” Jason Janke said. “A couple of weeks ago we had a team meeting about things and we just talked. These girls are resilient, and I give them a lot of credit.”

The resilience and sheer talent of the group will be something to watch in the coming months and years, as Ellsworth has one of the best young cores in the Middle Border Conference. Jason Janke spoke about some overarching themes for the season.

“These kids blazed a trail to a place that they haven’t seen in the girls basketball program in Ellsworth,” Jason Janke said. “Now the question is, can you go to the next level? Now the rubber really hits the road as juniors. The challenge is to keep working and not settling for the status quo.”

If the Ellsworth girls continue to develop their game as they did between last season and this year, it’s going to be a special team to watch throughout the 2022-23 season.

Ellsworth senior Ashley Koch holds the ball near the free throw line while looking for an open teammate. The regional final game against Saint Croix Falls was the final high school game of Koch’s career. Photo by Gaylen Bicking