ELLSWORTH — With temperatures sitting around 10 degrees below zero, fans were quick to get inside the building to watch Ellsworth host Elmwood/Plum City boys basketball Monday night. Neither team had their best shooting night, but the Panthers found the burst they needed late to pull out a 53-45 win.

The first 10 minutes were a defensive grind featuring a handful of unforced errors from both sides, resulting in a 10-9 EPC lead.

George Rohl of Ellsworth and Lucas Glaus of EPC traded two triples a piece late in the half and EPC clung to a 23-20 lead. The offenses heated up a bit late in the half, with the Wolves carrying the spark into the early second half.
Glaus started the half by draining a long three and taking a turnover coast to coast for an and-one to build a 29-22 EPC lead. The Ellsworth press started to get to EPC, forcing a couple of turnovers including a steal by Gavin Klos. Ellsworth converted off the steals, trimming the EPC lead down to 29-28 in a hurry.

An extended back and forth had the score knotted up at 38 with four minutes to play. Klos found a window from beyond the arc and drilled a triple to give Ellsworth the lead and the Panthers built that lead back to 44-38.

Dylan Zeilinger of EPC got a three right back and Glaus drew a foul, making one free throw to bring it to a 44-42 Ellsworth lead with 1:50 to play.

Ellsworth junior Jack Stoltenburg drove through the lane and wound up unguarded for a floater. The bucket got the Panthers a lead they would not lose in the final minutes.

Rohl finished with 19 points to lead Ellsworth, followed by nine from Gavin Puhrmann and seven from Klos. EPC got 23 from Glaus, 10 from Zeilinger and nine from Landen McDonough.

“We didn’t shoot it well. EPC came out and played hard, so credit to them for getting after us a little bit there,” Ellsworth Head Coach Derek Staley said. “We couldn’t hit a shot, so we had to find another way to win.”

With junior Omar Coulson out due to an illness, the Panthers were missing 14 points per game in the scoring department as well as a player that facilitates much of the offense. Staley felt the team was pushing too hard for the three-ball, when they needed to let the posts and the drives put in work to free up that shot.

“I hope we can learn from it. Watch film and learn how we need to score in other ways,” Staley said. “We are reliant a little bit too much on the three-pointer, and it kind of almost bit us today.”

After plenty of overtimes, nail biters and heroics this season, Staley said they are more than ready for whatever situation they get in. With that being said, they are also hoping to seal some games earlier on.

“Credit to them, they’re going to keep battling,” Staley said. “Hopefully that will pay dividends down the road, but we would like to not be in as many close games.”

It was senior night for the Panthers, honoring Derek Johnson, Riley Maher, Braydon Anderson, Gavin Puhrmann and Nash Kuhl.

“First of all, they’re just awesome guys to be around, awesome guys at practice,” Staley said. “Just great leaders, and more importantly, they’re just good guys. It makes coming to practice every day enjoyable for me which you can’t always say every single year.”

Heading into the game with a 53% free throw percentage, Staley said that is an immediate area of necessary improvement.

“I would like us to make some free throws. We’re really struggling from the free throw line,” Staley said. “You’ve got to make free throws down the stretch, you just have to.”

Staley also listed ball control as a focus in the final regular season weeks.

From EPC’s perspective, they played how they wanted to in the first half, making a few too many mistakes in the second.

“I thought we played very well in the first half,” EPC Head Coach Paul McDonough said. “Just down the stretch we had some poor shot selection, we got lazy on defense. We just got to learn how to finish.”

EPC has shown flashes of brilliance this year, proving capable of beating anyone if they can string together a complete game.

“When we can play, we can play,” McDonough said. “We’ve just got to put two halves together and we’ve only done that a couple times this year.”

Zeilinger is a player McDonough said can give a spark to EPC at any time, and it is players like him who will make the difference between wins and losses in the playoffs.

“He works hard on defense,” McDonough said. “He gives us hard minutes when he’s out there, and he can hit that three when we need him to, so he’s a good all-around player.”