BY RAY STRUNK

Special to the Tribune

ELLINWOOD – The St. John girls outscored the winless Ellinwood Eagles 26-9 in the fourth period for a 55-43 in Tuesday’s Central Prairie League basketball showdown. Bailey Burns scored 26 points and Tara Nelson scored 23 points. Nelson hit a pair of 3-pointers for 11 points and Burns scored 10 points in the final quarter.
St. John (5-4, 2-1 CPL) earned the win while Ellinwood (0-7, 0-1 CPL) remains winless.
The Eagles came out strong. Senior Allison Panning and sophomore Madison Ward scored two buckets a piece in the first 2:09 to give Ellinwood an 8-0 lead.
St. John responded with a run of their own. Led by seven first-quarter points from junior Tara Nelson, the Tigers finished the quarter with a 12-4 run to tie the game at 12-12.
Ellinwood outscored St. John 15-7 in the second quarter to take a 27-19 lead into halftime.
“We were really putting things together, starting to move the ball really well,” said Ellinwood head coach Andrew Cherry of his team’s first half showing. “Our defense was really good.”
After a St. John free-throw to start the second half, senior Brittney Beck scored five straight points to give the Eagles a 32-20 lead with 5:16 left in the third quarter.
Panning led the Eagles with 23 points. Beck finished with nine and Ward added six points.
“We’ve kind of had an achilles heel in the third quarter, coming out a little bit soft,” said Cherry. “I thought we came out aggressive. We got a stop and then a bucket in those first couple of possessions and so I thought things were really going well for us.”
Ellinwood’s momentum didn’t last long, however. St. John senior Bailey Burns scored six points in two minutes as the Tigers closed out the third quarter on a 9-2 run.
The Eagles couldn’t find an answer to the scoring tandem of Burns and Nelson. A layup and two threes from Ward early in the fourth quarter gave St. John their first lead of the second half with 6:30 remaining.
Ellinwood was never able to regain momentum. Burns and Nelson combined for 21 fourth quarter points as St. John outscored the Eagles 26-9 in the final quarter to finish with a 55-43 victory.

TIGERS 55, EAGLES 43
St. John 12 7 10 26 — 55
Ellinwood 12 15 7 9 — 43
SJ—Bailey Burns 26; Tara Nelson 23; Kerisa Brown 3.
EHS—Allison Panning 8-12 7-10 23; Hayes 0-4 1-2 1; Kaitlyn Panning 1-3 0-0 2; Ricker 0-1 0-0 0; Ward 3-6 0-0 6; Harrington 1-2 0-0 2; Beck 2-8 4-7 9; Petz 0-1 0-0 0; Totals 15-37 0-0 43.

CENTRAL PRAIRIE GIRLS
Otis-Bison 2-0 8-0
CPlains 1-0 8-0
Kinsley 2-1 6-3
St. John 2-1 5-4
Macksville 1-1 3-5
LaCrosse 0-0 4-4
Ellinwood 0-1 0-7
Victoria 0-1 0-8
Ness City 0-3 2-7

TUESDAY’S GAMES
St. John 56, Ellinwood 43
Otis-Bison 63, Kinsley 53
Spearville 51, Ness City 47
LaCrosse 55, Macksville 41
Stockton 80, Victoria 22

FRIDAY’S GAMES
Central Plains at Victoria
Ellinwood at Macksville
Kinsley at Kiowa County
Ness City at Trego
Otis-Bison at LaCrosse