The Sacred Heart Lady Knights closed out the regular season on Tuesday night with a blowout win over the Ellsworth Lady Bearcats 51-29.

Five players got into the scoring column for the Lady Knights, to take an 11-4 lead at the end of the first quarter, with senior Ella Gotti and freshman Katy Weis knocking down a pair of big 3’s.  In the second quarter Ellsworth would throw a 3-2 zone defense at the Lady Knights to force some outside offense, but junior Ellie Woodall found some penetration on the dribble drive and dish off to their post players for some easy points in the lane and on the blocks.

Senior Emilee Everett, freshman Avery Eshleman and senior Teghan Slagle would score half of their game totals in the quarter to help lead the Lady Knights to a 21-10 advantage at the break.

The final two quarters would see the Lady Knights out score Ellsworth 30-14, as nine players would figure into the game totals, with Ellie Woodall and Ella Gotti finishing with 9 each, Emilee Everett added 8 points, Avery Eshleman and Teghan Slagle chipped in 6 each.

Ellsworth would have one player in double figures with all of it coming in the fourth quarter, as junior Natalie Rolfs hit a pair of 3’s and went 4 of 6 from the charity stripe to finish with 10 points and sophomore Greta Klein added 8.

The Lady Bearcats closed out the regular season at 4-14, while the Sacred Heart Lady Knights improved to 10-7 as they get set for postseason play next week.

The #6 ranked Sacred Heart Knights would get plenty of scoring from their top point producers on the season and control much of the game with a 14 to 22 point lead to win the conference match-up 63-50 over Ellsworth.

The Bearcats were down 6 at the end of the first quarter 14-6, then Sacred Heart would find more offense in the 2nd quarter to take a 33-19 advantage to the locker room at intermission.

For half of the third quarter the Knights would continue to cruise and increase their lead by as much as 22 points at the 4:27 mark.  Then Coach Ryan Webber changed his defensive scheme for the Bearcats to extend their trapping 2-3 zone defense near mid court to help create 11 turnovers on the Knights during that span and score some big three point shots plus inside play cutting the Sacred Heart lead down to 8 midway through the fourth quarter.

Coach Brian Gormley called a time out to help his players break the rash of turnovers, take care of the basketball and finish out the game strong hitting some key free throws down the stretch to finish off the 13 point victory at 63-50.

Three Sacred Heart players would finish the game in double digits, with senior Caleb Gilliland dropping in 21 points for the night, senior Mason Richards added 16 and junior Alex Disberger chipped in 13.

Ellsworth had four players hit the double figure mark, as Avery Haxton led their scoring with 15, Braden Schulte and Trey Anderson each added 11, with Jaxson Stefek chipping in 10.

Ellsworth dropped to 10-6 for the season, while the number six ranked Sacred Heart Knights improved to 15-3 to close out the regular season and prepare for Sub-State play next week.