MARSHALLTOWN, IOWA -- Leading from start-to-finish, the Ellsworth men's basketball team nabbed a road win at Marshalltown CC on Wednesday night, beating the Tigers, 67-52.  MCC committed 29 turnovers and Ellworth had 19 steals in the Panthers' 15th win of the season, and 3rd over an NJCAA DI opponent.

ECC played without starters Ezekiel Thompkins and Rich Ashu but received a clutch performance from reserve Diondre Taylor, who paced ECC with 15 points, with Jordan Glenn-Hawkins the only other Panther in double figures with 13.  Four players -- Bruce Kanno, Dior Davis, Shawn Fulcher and Issakha Niang -- all scored 8 points.  Kanno led in rebounds with 10 and Niang blocked 4 shots.  Of ECC's 19 steals, Davis and Glenn-Hawkins were credited with 5 apiece and Fulcher had 4.

Ellsworth coach Bryan Bender conceded the game wasn't pretty, but said "we were able to stretch the lead with continuous stops and we got great lifts from our wings, Glenn-Hawkins and Taylor, who each hit 3 3s."

A 3-pointer by Arlandus Keyes put Ellsworth up 36-27 at the half.  MCC clawed back to within 38-35 early in the 2nd half before the Panthers went on a 7-0 run to go on top 53-40.  ECC nailed down the victory by hitting 8-of-10 foul shots in the final 2 1/2 minutes.

"I was happy to get the win," Bender said, "but we will have to move on quickly to our next conference game at DMACC on Saturday.  It's a huge game with 2nd place in the conference standings on the line."

"One of my outcome-based goals was to finish the season with a better record than last year," Bender stated.  "We tied the mark with our 15th win and still have 12 games to play."  Last year's ECC squad finished 15-16; this year's team is 15-5 after the decision at Marshalltown.