PRESCOTT — The Ellsworth girls basketball team kept Prescott within striking distance for the majority of the game until a late push from the Cardinals put them away once and for all for a 51-36 win Jan. 14.

It was the Cardinals that got out to an early lead. Senior Rory Zuehlsdorf nailed three triples in an instant, helping Prescott to an 11-6 start. From there, Prescott stretched the lead to 22-9 before Ellsworth cut it back to 22-15. The Prescott lead would stand at 26-17 at the half.

When Ellsworth looked to come out of the break with momentum, Prescott applied a successful press to negate it. Leah French made a layup before the press forced an errant pass and Hannah Schommer got a layup of her own to make it 33-23.

Senior Morgan Halverson got Ellsworth going in the second, making some tough buckets to cut the Prescott lead to 39-33 with seven minutes to play. Halverson had a big game for Ellsworth, posting 18 points, three steals and two blocks on the day.

Threes from Schommer and Cadyn Hillebrand and a layup from Violet Otto just about sealed the deal for the Cardinals.

The Cardinals are finding their footing coming out of the winter break, allowing less than 40 points in each of their first four games on the way to a 4-0 record. This is a feat Prescott accomplished just once over the first nine games of the year.

“I think our defense kind of stood out to me the most,” Head Coach Owen Hamilton said. “We really did a good job on kind of locking in on taking away any three-point shooting. I know they’ve kind of struggled this year, but just not letting them get that opportunity to get going.”

Offensively, Hamilton said the ball movement was up to the Cardinals’ expectations, and it was just a lack of knocking down their good looks that haunted the team.

Prescott’s defensive improvements are partially credited to a holiday tournament the team competed at in late December. The Cardinals were held to 21 points by a defensively sound Eau Claire Memorial team. Hamilton and the team used this film as something they can take defensive strategies from and make them their own.

Rivalry games are always up for grabs, no matter how each team’s seasons are going, and Prescott shut out the noise and got the job done.

“That just credits who they [his players] are,” Hamilton said. “You never know what’s going to happen with Ellsworth. They’ve been struggling this year, but they always come out against us and they come out with a little extra juice and they come out with something different every time.”

Hamilton complimented the Panthers and Head Coach Haylee Yaeger on how they came out of the gates, giving the Cardinals a look they have not seen all year. This caught Prescott by surprise and it took a bit of time to adjust.

Prescott has the type of two-way player every team hopes to have, as Zuehlsdorf plays her role of offensive spark plug perfectly to go along with the fact that she can guard all five positions.

“Ultimately, it’s kind of what translates to our team success,” Hamilton said. “Every night we put her on the best girl on the court or who we think the biggest weapon is at that time.”

Zuehlsdorf led the team with 15 points and made her presence felt on the defensive end. Hamilton said a lot of the credit for the team’s success goes to her because she provides both a scoring spark and the defense they need.

“The way she gets her teammates involved, the way she just goes about her business every day is something that you could put in the dictionary and show it to the freshmen on the first day,” Hamilton said.

Prescott’s win was its fourth in a row, which was followed by a tough 62-25 loss to Baldwin-Woodville on Friday. The Cardinals are 7-7 overall and 4-3 in conference play on the year.

“Just continuing to keep the ball rolling,” Hamilton said. “We as a team feel like we’ve dropped a couple when we’ve played earlier in the year. I put a lot of that on myself getting the girls to be in the right spots. The girls have put a lot on themselves to make sure we’re knocking down those shots, we’re playing the defense we want to play.”

Ellsworth is now 4-9 overall and 0-7 in conference, but the team with a lot of young talent has shown many bright spots as the season has gone along.