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Ê ELLSWORTH - League champions. Again. It sure has a nice ring to it. With victories at Harbor Light and Wolverine last week, the Ellsworth boys basketball team clinched it second straight Northern Lights Conference title.

Coach Tex Drenth was sick and didn't make the trip to Harbor Light for Ellsworth's boys basketball game last Tuesday night.

The Lancers never missed a beat, however, as they stepped up big with a 66-57 victory in the Northern Lakes Conference.

After trailing by six points, 20-14, after the first quarter, the Lancers bounced back to take a 31-28 halftime lead.

Ellsworth took a 47-40 lead heading into the fourth quarter, and then outscored Harbor Light 16-10 in the fourth period to pull out the win.

Leading scorers for the Lancers were Jared Danbert with 24 points and Jarod Steenwyk with 17 points.

Steenwyk also dished out 5 assists. Nolan Howes added 10 points, and Tyler Ingalls ended up with 10 rebounds and 8 assists.

David Doucette paced Harbor Light with 19 points.

"I have a lot of faith in my assistant coach," Drenth said. "We could send anybody up there to coach these kids the way they're playing ball right now.

"Kirk (Ikens) helps me out in a lot of different ways."

Ellsworth closed out the regular season on Thursday afternoon with a makeup game at Wolervine. It had been canceled three times.

The Lancers opened up a 43-12 halftime lead and never looked back, forcing a running clock in the third quarter as they cruised to a 60-27 victory.

"Our kids dominated right from the get-go," Drenth said.

Ingalls finished with 23 points to lead Ellsworth in scoring. Jared Steenwyk had 12 points. It clinched the league championship for Ellsworth, the school's first back-to-back boys basketball league titles since the early 1990's.

"That was one of our goals this year, to win the league," Drenth said. "So, we can cross that one off the list.

"We talked about it after losing the Mackinaw City game, that we could still finish the season with five straight wins and go into the tournament with a lot of momentum. And, I believe we are."

Ellsworth, which finished its league season 13-1, takes a 17-2 record into the district tournament, where it will face Bellaire tonight (Wednesday).