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PREP BOYS BASKETBALL: Panthers handle Ellsworth, 57-40

Photo by Brennen Rupp TMB’s Moses Dolan guards an Ellsworth player Friday. The Panthers won 57-40.

TRACY – In a battle of the Panthers it was the Tracy-Milroy-Balaton Panthers getting the better of the Ellsworth Panthers, 57-40. With the win, TMB snapped a six-game losing streak and picked up their seventh win of the season.

“It does feel good,” TMB coach, Rick Haberman said. “You want the guys to get rewarded. They’ve worked hard all year and they’ve had a great attitude all season long. It’s nice for them to get rewarded with some victories. It’s been a long time and it feels good to get the victory.”

The game opened up at a snail’s pace, with both teams struggling to find their footing on the offensive end. With Ellsworth holding a 6-5 lead the Panthers took the lead for good by going on a 12-0 run to open up a 17-6 lead. At the half, TMB held a 27-16 lead.

In the second half, Ellsworth managed to trim TMB’s lead to five at 40-35. The tide turned when Fritz Landherr knocked down a pair of 3-pointers.

“Ellsworth made it really difficult for us to score,” Haberman said. “They really packed it in and played good post defense. Fritz was able to knock down some 3-pointers and that was huge for us.”

TMB closed out the game by outscoring Ellsworth 17-5 to pick up the 57-40 win. Haberman said it wasn’t his team’s best performance of the season, but all that matters is that they got the win.

“I do feel like we’ve probably played better games,” he said. “I think we played better on Tuesday and Thursday and didn’t get the win, but that’s competition. Sometimes you play well and don’t win, and other times you don’t play well and you find a way to win.”

Haberman added that the fact that his team was able to find a way to win is something his team can build on going into postseason play.

“That is a positive for tonight. We didn’t play our best, but we found away to win,” he said. “In that second half Ellsworth cut the lead to five and I though we really responded well.”

Haberman said his team didn’t play the cleanest game defensively, but added that when his team needed stop they came up with them.

“On defense we had some breakdowns,” he said. “I think in key situations when we had to get stops we came up with them. I thought we rebounded fairly well. I’d still like to see us rebound better on the offensive end.”

Spencer Smith led the Panthers with 31 points and 13 rebounds while Landherr added nine points. Matt Timmerman scored six points, grabbed seven rebounds and dished out four assists while Moses Dolan dished out a team-high seven assists for TMB.

The Panthers will wrap up the regular season on Thursday at home against Windom Area. Haberman said he wants to see his team put together a complete game.

“We want to put everything together,” he said. “We really struggled scoring lately, and then last night we scored a season-high 71 points, but gave up 74 points. We’d like to put a full game together.”

Ellsworth 16 24-40

TMB 27 30-57

SCORING: TMB 22-50, 44 percent (Smith 12-22, 5-7 31; Landherr 3-8, 0-1, 9; Timmerman 2-4, 1-3 6; Davis 2-4, 0-2 5)

3-POINT FGS: TMB 7 (Landherr 3; Smith 2).

REBOUNDS: TMB 27 (Smith 13; Timmerman 7).

ASSISTS: TMB 16 (Dolan 7; Timmerman 4).

STEALS: TMB 7 (Smith 3; Two with 2).

BLOCKS: TMB 2 (Two with1).

FOULS: TMB 9

TURNOVERS: TMB 5

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