BLOOMING PRAIRIE &8212; Some of the faces may have changed but the results have not for the New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva girls&8217; basketball team.

The Panthers defended their Gopher Conference crown from a year ago by beating Blooming Prairie for the second time this season 51-43 Tuesday.

&8220;The Panther girls hit big shots when they needed to defeating the Blooming Prairie Blossoms to clinch the Gopher Conference Championship outright,&8221; NRHEG head coach Mindy Sparby said. &8220;It was a great effort on both ends of the floor.&8221;

Senior captains Brittany Hansen and Jasmine Brouwers stepped up and led the way once again for the Panthers. Hansen paced the team with 23 points and Brouwers had 14.

The two teams had similar statistics across the board in the game, but the NRHEG defense forced four more turnovers and had two more steals.

The victory improved the Panthers to 14-1 in conference play while the Blossoms fell into a second place tie at 12-3. NRHEG is at Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton Friday.

USC 46, WEM 37

WATERVILLE &8212; The United South Central girls&8217; basketball team raced out to a 30-18 halftime lead over Waterville-Elysian-Morristown and cruised to a 46-37 Gopher Conference win.

Lauren Schuster scored 13 of her 17 points in the first half to go along with 10 rebounds, Shawnee Sovell added 13 points and Jordan Anderson had nine points in the game.

USC was able to get the ball in the post and WEM could not find the answers to stop either Schuster or Sovell.

The Rebels&8217; defense did not allow a WEM player to reach double figures in scoring on the night.

The win improved USC to 4-11 in conference while WEM fell to 9-7. The Rebels host Blooming Prairie tonight.

Lake Mills 63, North Kossuth 41

LAKE MILLS, Iowa &8212; The Lake Mills boys&8217; basketball team held North Kossuth to just eight first half points en route to a dominating 63-41 victory Tuesday night.

The Bulldogs had a 29-8 halftime advantage led by Steve Hengesteg who finished with 18 points and eight steals. Spenser Brackey added 14 points as 12 different Lake Mills players scored in

the game.

The Bulldogs hit 12 of 21 free throws.

Lake Mills improved to 13-8 on the season and is at Armstong-Ringsted Friday.

G-E 61, Grand Meadow 56

GLENVILLE &8212; Glenville-Emmons used big performances from Josh Adams and Andrew Mittag Tuesday night to down Grand Meadow 61-56.

The win reversed a 15-point loss by the Wolverines to Grand Meadow earlier in the season.

Jarrad Knutson led G-E with 17 points, 15 rebounds and five assists. However, he fouled out with six minutes to go in the game and Adams and Mittag stepped up to keep the Wolverines in the lead.

Adams finished with 16 points and six boards while Mittag had 14 points and five assists.

&8220;Andrew played a great game and was a floor leader for us,&8221; G-E head coach Dan Fredrickson said. &8220;Josh was big for us in the end when they were trying to get at us defensively.&8221;

Mittag had one of his best games of the season hitting four 3-pointers on parents night.

Joe Williamson also had a big game for G-E leading the defense and making Grand Meadow&8217;s guards work for everything.

G-E is back in action Friday when it hosts Spring Grove.

WEM 51, USC 46

WELLS &8212; Waterville-Elysian-Morristown hit 11 3-pointers in its game with United South Central Tuesday to down the Rebels 51-46.

USC was within four points at halftime, but could not slow down WEM in the second half.

Tom Eilertson led the Rebels with 15 points while Jake Sonnek added nine and Jordan Stenzel had eight.