The Spring Valley Cardinals were defeated on the road by the Durand-Arkansaw Panthers on Friday night by a score of 57-44. It was a must win game for the Cardinals who had dropped a game behind the Panthers earlier in the week with their loss to Elk Mound, a loss that would have set up a scenario for a three-way tie for first place had the Cardinals been able to secure the victory.

The Cardinals led throughout the majority of the first half, but it was mostly a defensive affair. Just past mid period, the score was 15-10 in favor of Spring Valley.

Kaden Robelia added on to that number with a jump shot in front of the basket, and Jameson Bauer picked up the rebound on the following possession which set up Masyn Wolf for a layup as Spring Valley grabbed a nine-point advantage with 7:00 to go in the opening frame.

This would be the high point of the game for Spring Valley as Durand began a 15-3 run that ate up the rest of the period.

The Cardinals played strong defense throughout, but the Panthers made the most of their limited looks. First, Durand intercepted a pass and drained a three-pointer, and then they followed it up with a fastbreak for two more to make it 15-19 at the 5:00 mark.

Two and a half minutes went by before the score changed. Unfortunately, it was of the three-point variety, and it was in the home team’s favor. Then, a minute later, the Panthers did it again and took the lead at 21-19.

With the clock ticking under 30 seconds, Diego Schmitt hit a two-pointer, and things seemed to be turning around for the Cardinals as Trevor Forster immediately came up with a steal. However, the Panthers got the rebound and hit a buzzer beating layup, and Spring Valley went into the half down 25-22.

The Panthers got the ball first in the second half, and they made it count, increasing their lead by two. Jameson Bauer quickly worked his way into position at the top of the arc on the following possession and didn’t miss, pulling the Cardinals within two.

Several defensive minutes later, Stasiek ended up with a contested rebound and took it the length of the court, sinking a fingertip flip layup over a defender to retake the lead at 28-27.

It would be short lived though as the Panthers slowly started to grind away minutes and add on points, resulting in 5:00 coming off the clock as Durand went on a 7-0 run, grabbing a six-point advantage. Bauer hit another deep shot from the left side that trimmed the lead to three, but the home team answered in kind to make it a two-score game once again.

Spring Valley played hard, but the shots weren’t dropping, and the deficit kept expanding as the minutes wound off the clock. The Cardinals briefly pulled within four off a Stasiek jump shot for three, but with 5:30 left in regulation, they found themselves down by nine at 43-34.

With two minutes remaining, Spring Valley recorded their 10^th foul and sent the Panthers to the line where they once again added on. Conversely, Durand had sent the Cardinals to the line just three times over the same span, and this was a big difference maker in the loss.

The game came to a close shortly thereafter as the Panthers held on to win 57-44.

Inefficiency was the Achilles Heel for Spring Valley in this one as they fell well below their season averages in shooting. Stasiek, who is among the conference leaders in most categories this season, predictably led the way by a pretty wide margin for the Cardinals, scoring 16 points and garnering a dozen rebounds enroute to a double-double.

Stasiek says they stuck together and played as a team; it just didn’t go their way this time.

“It was a tough fight. Both teams played well, I thought, but they just made their free throws at the end and came out on top,” Stasiek said. “We’ve got to move on. It's playoffs now, we can't do anything about conference.”

Head Coach Rob Bosshart says that while they didn’t get the win at the end, he sees value in the experience of playing two very talented teams to finish out the conference season ahead of playoffs. In his opinion, the only thing he would be disappointed about is if they let this loss get in the way of them taking care of business and finishing their last game strong.

“We didn't shoot very well. We knew going into the season, with the group that we had, that we were going to have to be able to score some points from the perimeter,” Bosshart said. “We have a little size inside with Mason and Caleb, but we don't have a lot of size across the board. We have to be able to keep teams honest and score from the outside which allows those guys inside to flourish. When we’re not scoring from the perimeter, it just makes it really tough because then they can pack it in our big guys.”

Coach Bosshart says they’re already focusing on finishing their last game of the season strong and preparing for the excitement of the sudden death postseason. Whereas the regular season is a marathon that can be a little more forgiving, the playoffs don’t allow for mistakes, and he says they’re looking forward to the tournament and have expectations of winning the regional championship and pushing as far as they can go.

With this loss, Spring Valley dropped to 10-3 and is mathematically eliminated from contention for the conference championship, while Durand advanced to 12-1 and will likely end the year as the Dunn-St. Croix champions.

Next up for the Cardinals is their final game of the regular season when they travel to Plum City on Thursday to play the Wolves at 7:15 p.m.