Ellsworth girls basketball picked up a 42-31 win at Turtle Lake on Thursday, but the expectations of themselves were higher than they performed.

The Panthers burst out to a 33-11 lead at the half, losing the second half 20-9 to a team that has had its fair share of struggles this year at 2-8.

“Walking out of the gym it didn’t feel exactly like the greatest win with a rough second half for us,” Head Coach Haylee Yaeger said. “I came to the locker room emphasizing finishing, and then we took that into practice. Finishing one possession, finishing a drill, finishing one half or finishing a game.”

Despite picking up the win, the team is searching for answers to fix what went wrong in the back half of the game.

“Big first half, went into the locker room feeling good, the girls were pumped up,” Yaeger said. “Don’t let us trail down and that’s exactly what we did for a little bit. You can take a look at all the stats and almost every single area is below or worse than that of the first half.”

The reason for this drive to be better is because the heart of conference play comes after the winter break, and teams know they have to be at their best when it does.

“If we have a second half like we did against Turtle Lake against these better teams, especially teams in conference, it’s going to be blowouts,” Yaeger said.

Ellsworth did not play a game between Dec. 20 and Jan. 2, so rust may have also been a factor.

“I do wish we had some games in that mix just to keep our feet underneath us and prep for upcoming games, but also it was a good break,” Yaeger said.

The formula is right there on the table for the Panthers, which provides a better scenario than scouring for what the exact issue is this far into the season. At 4-5 overall and 0-4 in conference play, a few games have already been a tale of two halves. Two of these games were a 37-26 win over La Crosse Logan where they trailed 18-9 at the half and a 43-31 loss to Amery where they trailed 31-15 at half and won the second half.

“Control what we can control,” Yaeger said. “Show up to practices, games, defend and run our system for 36 minutes of that game.”

Ellsworth hosts Bloomer Jan. 7 and Somerset on Jan. 9 before the rivalry battle at Prescott on Jan. 14.