OTTUMWA, IOWA -- Ellsworth CC men's basketball coach Bryan Bender has told his squad since before the season started about the importance of the season-opening stretch of 9-games-in-19 days.  The Panthers attacked that first part of the schedule with a fury and the result is a 9-0 record.  The latest wins came this weekend in a classic at Indian Hills in which ECC dismantled Missouri State-West Plains, 101-82, and then took care of McCook (Neb.), 86-71, to stay perfect on the season.

The number-seven ranked Panthers used their deep bench and best shooting night of the year to win the Friday game against Missouri State-West Plains, despite being outrebounded for the first time this season.  It was the first of 2 Division I programs that Ellsworth defeated in the classic.  "Missouri State-West Plains was a team with bigger bodies than us and has better resources than ours," said coach Bender.  "I also used to coach there (as an assistant) so it meant a little more to beat them."

Dior Davis led 6 Panthers in double figures with 16 points and he had a team-high 6 assists.  One Panther who drew praise from his coach was sophomore Rich Ashu, who pumped in 15 points and grabbed 8 rebounds.  "Rich gave us a huge boost.  He played extremely hard and is much improved from a year ago and has a really good chance of earning a DI scholarship after this year," Bender explained.  "He is very consistent and has been a great leader in our locker room.  I am glad he stayed and committed himself to improving his body.  He worked really hard in the offseason and it was great to see it show up on the stat sheet."

Ellsworth established season-highs in shooting percentage (58.5%) and free throw attempts (46) and connected on 8-of-18 3-point tries.

"The difference in the game was our ability to get to the free throw line and attack the paint," Bender said.  "We shot the ball well from 3 as well and were able to get the win with our attacking style.  We were trailing throughout the first half, but a big run where we pressed for 2 minutes and with great execution we finished the half up 6 points.  The second half we were able to run more and got a lot of easy baskets in transition and closed out the game at the line."

Shawn Fulcher scored 13 points off the bench for ECC, Ezekiel Thompkins added 11 and Bruce Kanno and Saliou Seye scored 10 apiece.  Issakha Niang blocked 4 shots.

In the McCook contest on Saturday night, Bender said the Panthers beat a team that is similar to Ellsworth.  "They are very heavy international and there were 19 players on the floor from 14 different countries.  They had a 7-footer and very big players at the 3 and 4 positions.  They were a little banged up and our bench and pace of play was too much for them to handle."

One of the ECC bench players who excelled was Shawn Fulcher, who led the scoring with 24 points.  He hit 8-of-12 shots from the floor, made the team's only 3-pointer and drilled 7-of-10 foul shots.  Dior Davis helped out with 16 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals.  "Those guys did what they do best," according to Bender, "and that's get us going offensively.  Shawn had 17 points in the first half; he is a player who can just get a bucket.  He is so quick with the ball and can get to the paint whenever he wants.  He has great body control and was able to get easy layups.  Great scorers get to the line and he leads us in free throw attempts."

Rich Ashu and Bruce Kanno had 12 and 11 points, respectively, for the Panthers.  Ellsworth shot 54.4 percent from the field, the 6th time in 9 games they have been over 50 percent. 

The Panthers are now idle until next Saturday when they travel to take on Minnesota West, a team they defeated, 114-68, back on Nov. 8.  Then they play at Kansas City Kansas CC Nov. 29 before starting conference play later that week.