IOWA FALLS, IOWA -- The Ellsworth CC men's basketball team, which narrowly missed being ranked in the top ten nationally this week, flexed its offensive muscles on Tuesday night in a 114-67 blowout win against Minnesota West at Dittmer Gym.  The Panthers are 11th in the latest NJCAA DII poll and pushed their scoring average to 103.5 points a game with the latest victory.

ECC broke away from a 30-all tie in the opening period to lead 56-41 at intermission, then overwhelmed Minnesota West, 58-26, over the final 20 minutes to improve to 4-0 for the season.  Ellsworth did most of its scoring from the field, connecting on only 2-of-12 3-point attempts.  They did a good job at the foul line, making 26-of-32 free throws.

Fourteen players appeared for the Panthers and all of them played at least 8 minutes.  Thirteen of the 14 scored and ECC got 66 points from its bench players.  One of them, Shawn Fulcher, led the scoring with 21 points and made 9-of-12 field goal attempts.  Dior Davis chipped in 15 points, Arlandus Keyes 12, and Saliou Seye and Ezekiel Thompkins 11 each.  Thompkins paced ECC on the glass with 9 rebounds.  

The Panthers blocked 9 shots and have averaged 10.0 per game in the first 4.  They also had 16 steals.

Ellsworth will try to add to its early-season win streak when its hosts Western Technical College on Friday and Rochester CTC Saturday in this weekend's Dale Howard Classic at Dittmer Gym.