Mounder boys pounded by SCC, lose close one to Ellsworth
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THE MOUNDERS Ben Heath lined up and nailed this three-point shot to bring Elk Mound within five points of Ellsworth late in the second half of the December 4 non-conference home game. Heath tallied eight points in the Mounders’ 61-57 loss. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
by Marlys Kruger
Sports Correspondent
ELK MOUND — It certainly wasn’t a pretty start to the Elk Mound boys’ basketball season when they faced former Dunn-St. Croix Conference foe St. Croix Central on December 3.
The Panthers, now in the Middle Border Conference, were coming off a regional championship a year ago, before losing to powerhouse Prescott in the sectionals. Scoring just seven first half points, the Mounders played from behind all night, resulting in a 66-17 loss on their home court.
Things improved tremendously just 24 hours later, however, when they faced another team of Panthers from the Middle Border Conference. The Mounders came up just a few points short in a 61-57 home loss to Ellsworth.
Elk Mound’s next four contests will be on the road including last night’s (Tuesday, December 8) Dunn-St. Croix opener in Spring Valley. The Mounders will then play three straight non-conference road games beginning with Altoona this Saturday, December 12, at Eau Claire Regis on Tuesday, December 15 and in Augusta on Friday, December 18 before breaking for the Christmas holiday.
St. Croix Central
Ryan Bohl scored five of the Mounders seven first half points, but the Panthers seemed to be unstoppable as they scored from short range and long range for a 35-7 first half advantage.
Things continued to go south for Elk Mound when the Panthers upped their lead to 43-7 before Michael Jenson finally scored from behind the arc to make it 43-10. The Central lead expanded to 53-10 before Kaden Russo came off the bench to drain a triple for the Mounders, and Ben Heath scored from the paint. Nate Lew followed with a couple of free throws to finish off the Mounder scoring for the night.
Bohl led the Mounders with five points, and as a team they were two of four from the free throw line and hit a trio of triples for the game.
Ellsworth
The Mounders seemed to have found their shooting eye as they canned 14 three pointers in the contest, nine of them in the second half. After falling behind 23-15 in the first half, they went on a roll and knotted the score at 27-27 at the intermission.
The Mounders took the lead on a bucket by Lew and Jenson drained his third triple of the game for a 32-27 lead. Heath knocked down his own three pointer to make it 38-33. Kaden Russo connected from behind the arc for a 41-35 Mounder advantage but Ellsworth came back to tie things up at 44-44 then pulled ahead 51-44. Elk Mound fought back, getting to within a point late in the game, but they couldn’t get over the hump and free throws by Ellsworth finished off the game.
Jenson scored a team leading 16 points for the Mounders which included four treys, Bohl added nine points on three triples, Heath finished with eight points, Ryan Bartig scored six on a pair of long balls and Jerome Delikowski added five. They were five of ten from the foul line and in a very physical game, they committed 23 fouls while the Panthers had 16.