The Prescott Cardinals girls’ basketball team defeated the Osceola Chieftains 58-34 on Thursday in Prescott. The first-place Cardinals maintained their dominance of the Middle Border Conference by moving to 6-1 on Thursday.

Prescott took an early lead, scoring the first two points of the game, then garnering a steal when Leah French tipped the ball out of the Chieftains’ control and into the waiting hands of Violett Otto. Unfortunately, they couldn’t turn it into points, but that didn’t stop Rory Zuehlsdorf from getting a steal of her own to keep up the Cardinals’ early control of the game script.

French was back at it on defense moments later when she blocked a shot to keep points off the board.

Prescott continued putting on a defensive clinic in the first period. After pushing out to a 6-0 lead, the Cardinals got another steal, this time from star player Lila Posthuma who immediately ran the ball headlong down the court to try to add onto their lead.

After scoring 10 in a row, Posthuma showed up again for the red birds, slapping down a shot by the Chieftains and grabbing the rebound. Defense wasn’t all she would do in the first period, though. With 5:23 remaining in the half and the score sitting at 17-4, Zuehlsdorf passed it from the top of the key out to Posthuma in the left corner who promptly put one up for three more.

Just seconds later, French got in the defense’s way again, reaching out and tipping a pass out of the air and into Posthuma’s hands who immediately hurled it down court where Otto was hustling towards the net. She didn’t miss, and the Cardinals took a 22-4 lead with 4:45 to play in the opening frame.

Things just kept getting worse for the Chieftains as Posthuma intercepted yet another pass and took a fastbreak the length of the court before passing it off to Cadyn Hillebrand who put a layup off the board and didn’t miss to make it 29-4.

By the midpoint of the second period, the Cardinals had taken a massive 44-13 lead, but that didn’t stop them from continuing to run up the score as Megan Richter sank a three-pointer from the left wing to add on. Richter added onto her highlight reel shortly thereafter by getting a nice block of her own from under the net.

By the end of the game, Prescott was resting its starters and getting some of their reserve players some valuable game minutes. Thus, the Chieftains gained some of the ground back between them, but the first-place Cardinals still won by two dozen at 58-34.

After dropping 4-5 games at the end of December, albeit against non-conference opponents, the Cardinals have been on a tear lately, winning 4-5 dating back to Dec. 29.

Head Coach Owen Hamilton says it has been a mental turnaround for the team.

“I think the big difference has been playing with confidence. We have an incredibly hard schedule, so for us, I think we just needed to win a couple to get the ball rolling,” Hamilton said. “The biggest thing for us to keep ourselves at the top of the conference is taking everything a day at a time and focusing on the game or practice at hand that day. It feels like we’re all pretty well connected on that right now, and at the end of the day, that’s all we can ask for. We have a big game on Tuesday against Somerset, so hopefully we can keep that going.” 

The Cardinals have a two-game slate of Middle Border Conference opponents this week. First they play the aforementioned Somerset Spartans on the road on Tuesday, and then they return home on Friday to play the Saint Croix Central Panthers. Both games tip off at 7 p.m.

River Falls Wildcats

The River Falls Wildcats defeated the Chippewa Falls Cardinals by a score of 67-24 in River Falls on Friday. It was the sixth victory in their last seven games for the Wildcats as they’re red hot going into the final stretch of the season before playoffs.

The Cardinals won the tipoff, but Cheyenne Wilson almost immediately grabbed a steal and took it the length of the court before executing a beautiful pass over to Hayley Quinn to complete the fastbreak and take a 2-0 lead.

After the first 4:00 of play, they had an 11-3 lead, but Chippewa Falls tightened their defense and held the Wildcats to just five points over the next 5:00. River Falls responded by making up for lost time, scoring twice in a row including an Addy Timm three-pointer from the right wing of the perimeter.

The Cardinals took a timeout to get a breather and try to get their gameplan back on track, but it didn’t help as just seconds later Timm found herself open again from the exact same spot and drained her shot for three more to make it 24-6.

With 4:43 left in the first, Kaelin Jalowitz came up with a nice steal and fastbreak. Jordan Schwantz got the next points of the game, hitting a three-pointer from a pace off the top left corner of the key to bring the score to 31-8.

The first half came to a close with the Wildcats up by 30 at 39-9.

Jordan Torrez got things going in the second period for River Falls, picking up a steal and passing it over to Schwantz who completed the fastbreak with a layup.

Quinn got a pair of picks back-to-back not long after that and take both steals to the house for River Falls to increase their lead to three dozen at 47-11 with just under 13:00 remaining in regulation.

The Wildcats kept playing hard and pulling further and further away. With 7:30 to go, Emily Van Ausdal and Schwantz sank back-to-back three-pointers and took their lead to a game high 43 points.

It was a great game all the way around for the Wildcats who put up 67 points while getting 37 rebounds, 12 assists and a whopping 16 steals on the night.

Head Coach Ian Sticht likes the fact that they’ve won six of their last seven games, but he says that doesn’t matter as much as focusing on the games they have yet to play.

“We just try to focus on things game by game. I don't buy into the idea of winning six of our last seven meaning anything; we just try to live in the present and think about the game we have coming up next. Then, when the game's over, learn from those mistakes or build on the positives, and then just focus on the next game. I think everything else will take care of itself,” Sticht said. “We're excited to be in the spot we are with this many games left. We have a stretch coming up where we play Menomonie, Hudson and Memorial in like five or six days, so we're excited for that and being able to play three top level teams in a short period of time. It’s a big challenge, and that's something we're looking forward to.”

Next up for the second-place 5-3 Wildcats is a home game against the first-place 6-1 Eau Claire Memorial Old Abes on Friday. Tipoff for that game is at 7:15 p.m.

Ellsworth Panthers

The Ellsworth Panthers were defeated by the Saint Croix Central Panthers by a score of 47-42 in Hammond on Thursday night.

Things got off on the right foot for Ellsworth defensively as Morgan Halverson picked up a block and put the ball in the hands of their best playmaker, Molly Janke. Next Maria Harrington came up with near identical back-to-back steals and took the ball the length of the court both times. Unfortunately, some nights the ball doesn’t go through the hoop, and the Panthers came up empty on all three of these opportunities.

That didn’t stop them from taking an early lead. After pulling out to a 3-2 advantage, Janke found herself with some space about a step off the top left corner of the key, jumped up and hit the three-pointer.

A subsequent block and rebound by Halverson ended in no joy. However, Janke came up with the Panthers’ third block of the opening period, and Ellsworth capitalized this time on a Janke deep shot from the top right corner of the key for three more to take a 9-2 lead.

Kayla Kressin and Halverson each got another block, but ultimately Saint Croix Central went on a 10-2 run of their own and took a one-point lead. Harrington got the advantage back for Ellsworth off a nice steal and fastbreak.

The game stayed tight, and Ellsworth went into the half holding onto a 18-16 lead.

Midway through the second period, the score was 33-30 in favor of SCC, but a steal by Aubrey Wittenberg allowed Ellsworth to tighten things up.

Unfortunately, it was to no avail as Central would maintain their slim lead until the very end and even increase it slightly as the final score was 47-42.

Head Coach Jason Janke tips his cap to Saint Croix Central but believes they have yet to play their best basketball of the season.

“They shot the 3 very well and got to the free throw line at a much higher rate than us, so you have to give them credit for playing well,” Janke said. “Down the stretch, we will focus on one game at a time, try to play smart basketball throughout each game and hope that our hard work pays off in the latter half of the season. We have a veteran group that is determined and will continue to work hard each night at practice. We have great kids, and they play hard for each other.”

This second consecutive loss to a Middle Border opponent drops the Panthers into fourth place, their lowest positioning of the season. However, they have a two-game slate of MBC opponents on deck for this week, so the opportunity to right the ship is nigh.

First up for the 4-3 Panthers is a road game against 4-2 Altoona on Tuesday, and then they will return home to play 2-4 Amery on Thursday. Both of those games tip off at 7:15 p.m.