KANSAS CITY, KANSAS -- A furious 2nd half comeback attempt came up just short and the Ellsworth Panthers lost their first game of the season on the road Tuesday night. Kansas City Kansas CC saw a 21-point lead slip away, but held on to knock off ECC, 93-88, to end the No. 4-rated Panthers season-opening 10-game win streak.
Ellsworth found itself trailing 70-49 with 11:49 to play, but used a 29-14 advantage over the next 10 minutes to pull to within 82-78. The Panthers got the deficit to a single point at 85-84 with 1:54 remaining, but the Blue Devils were able to nail down the victory at the free throw line.
ECC's first close game of the season taught the Panthers some lessons, according to coach Bryan Bender. "We learned the value of every possession and how we need to play our way for 40 minutes," the Panthers' coach said. "We playied a true road game against a scrappy team who scouted us well. They shot the ball extremely well and we had a few mental lapses in guarding some of their stagger action that allowed them to stretch the lead."
"I was proud of our efforts to battle back and cut the lead down to one point, but a few tough breaks down the stretch left us short."
Dior Davis played a "complete game" according to Bender, leading ECC with 24 points and 4 steals. Arlandus Keyes gave Ellsworth a great lift off the bench, hitting 4 3s and pouring in 16 points. Shawn Fulcher matched that point total and Jordan Glenn-Hawkins scored 10 points and nailed 3 3s. Saliou Seye paced Ellsworth on the boards with 8, but they lost the rebounding battle (42-38) for the first time this year. The Panthers were also outshot from the foul line for the first time.
"We won't hit the panic button after one loss," Bender promised, "however, there were some things that we have been able to get away with that we didn't tonight. We preach in our program the idea/principles behind never blaming, complaining or making excuses and so we will own the loss and learn the tough lesson of having to play like the number-four team in the country for 40 minutes, not just the first 5 and last 10 like we did tonight."
The Panthers scored the first 7 points of the game and pumped in 39 points over the last 12 minutes of play. The 88 points were a dozen under their season average.
The first conference contest will be Ellsworth's next game, Saturday at Iowa Western. Bender predicts it will be a tough game and said his team will be ready to go after they regroup over the next few days. "For us to make a championship run we will need to be at our best night in and night out because we are the target."
The 16-game conference slate begins in the 3:00 game in Council Bluffs Saturday.