Lake City stays undefeated by spoling Ellsworth season opener

• Ellsworth's Jake Betthauser and Lake City's Zach Hinrichs

Jake Betthauser dribbles along the baseline trying to get past Zach Hinrichs.
• Lake City's Coleman Sweeney

Ellsworth players trail Coleman Sweeney as he goes in for a lay-up.

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ELLSWORTH - Lake City High School's boys basketball team used a 12-1 run at the start the fourth quarter to spoil Ellsworth's debut game for the 2011-12 season 41-25 Tuesday evening.

Ellsworth was disadvantaged in several ways in this contest. Lake City had more size and length; the Tigers (3-0 overall) already had played two more games than the Panthers and EHS was without one of its more experienced players, senior point guard Travis Kroll, who was sitting out the game due to a violation of team rules (he'll be back in the line up for Ellsworth's game at Boyceville).

Add to that ice cold shooting from the field (The Panthers were just 9-of-40 from the field and 2-for-15 from behind the three-point arc) and Lake City led all the way. The Tigers were up 10-2 after the first quarter.

"If was first game in a front of big crowd and we had kids in different positions on the court than they're used to so there are nerves to deal with which can alter shots even in the slightest ways," Ellsworth head coach Cory Brathol said. "Had we made a few right away we would have overcome this but we didn't. We missed a lot of good shots and we started pressing and trying too hard and just made things worse."

To keep Lake City from running away with the contest, Ellsworth slowed the pace down and used its speed and jumping ability to force turnovers and get rebounds which kept Lake City's margin at a reasonable level. EHS was down 21-10 at halftime and 27-15 to start the fourth quarter.

Ellsworth's Adam Kearns hit a jumper which cut LC's lead to 27-17 before the Tigers' fourth quarter run which made the score 39-18. Lake City used good defensive play to force turnovers and made their jump shots and lay-ups in transition. Coleman Sweeney made a couple baskets in the run to finish with eight points. Teammate Ben Schramski9 finished with seven points and 6-6 center Zach Hinrichs led Lake City in scoring with 10 points.

"It was our defense which won the ballgame for us," Lake City head coach Shawn Sweeney said. "Too many times on offense we stood around and threw the ball away or got outhustled by them for rebounds. But on defense we were very solid and never let them get on a scoring which could threaten us. It was our defense which sparked our scoring run in the fourth quarter."

Ellsworth's leading scorer was Brady Schroeder with 10 points while Alex Campbell finished with five.

Tags: prep boys basketball, sports, prep, ellsworth