After surrendering points early to the inside _duo at Somerset, in the name of Heather Gaikowski and Danielle Schachtner, the traveling Panthers found their poise in the season opener for both teams. With Panther's star, Autumn Earney sidelined with foul trouble after scoring 16 first-half points, Brianna Giese and Ava Brookswaw each nailed 2 3point shots apiece toward the end of the first half for a 40-34 halftime lead._ With Earney still sidelined to start the half, it was Junior, Hayley Bach's turn to grab the baton, as she was white-hot from the threepoint line, hitting 4 of them while sandwiching a drive and a basket to power_Ellsworth through the first portion of the second half._ Somerset would not go away quietly, as Taylor Paulson hit three three-pointers late in the second half, while Senior post, Schachtner continued to pound away down low for 12 second-half points. The Spartans had several opportunities to tie the Panthers in the latter portion of the game, the purple stood the test on each occasion, never surrendering the lead. Molly Janke hit a put-back and a long 3-pointer with under 3:00 to play to bolster the Panther offense late._ The game proved to be a battle till the end, as things were in question_until only 8 seconds remained, that's when Giese nailed her final free throw to put the Panthers up 4 points with Somerset out of timeouts._ 'We are so proud of the girls for handling some adversity and finding a way to hang on to an extremely hard-fought win,” Janke enamored. “When Autumn was in and out with foul trouble, the girls were lost for a while. I thought Brianna and Ava hitting those 3's prior to half gave us a boost that you can't get without kids just flat-out stepping up. We were really proud of them.'

'With four fouls on Autumn, we just didn't feel comfortable trying to get through the entire half, so we went with Ava who closed the half with solid play. As a true team, though, we continued to have players step throughout the second half. Hayley just carried us early in the second half, hitting 4 consecutive baskets. Molly had a huge five-point run during another stretch, and Ava came up with 7 more points, out of loose ball plays in the second half. Lily Puhrmann played excellent defense and rebounded well, while Kaitlyn Peterson was outstanding bouncing around on defense and creating problems for Somerset with her quickness,' Janke stated.

Autumn Earney led a very balanced Panther attack with 22 points, and Bach was close behind with 19. Molly Janke and Ava Brookshaw, both freshmen seeing their first varsity action went for 14 & 13 respectively, while Giese added nine and Puhrmann a basket. Puhrmann (6) and Janke (9) led off the boards,_while Giese (7) and Janke (6) dished out 13 of the Panthers' 19 assists for the night.

The Panthers will be back in action Friday night at home against Baldwin-Woodville.