IOWA FALLS, IOWA -- The Ellsworth CC basketball team was rewarded for its most successful season in decades by earning the No. 3 seed in the 2024 NJCAA DII National Championship at the Mary Miller Center in Danville, Ill., next week.  The Panthers are one of 4 teams that will get a first-round bye and they'll await the winner of the opening-round matchup between Monroe (NY) and Morris (NJ) with those teams meeting on Monday, Mar.  18.  The Panthers own a 27-6 record and will play their initial game in the tourney on Tuesday afternoon, Mar. 19, at 3:00pm.  Also in their part of the bracket are Milwaukee Area Tech, the defending DII national champion, and Iowa Lakes, the team Ellsworth defeated in the Region XI title game to automatically qualify for the tournament.

Iowa Lakes is one of 4 teams in the tourney that ECC played in the regular season, a number that includes 2 conference foes.  The Panthers met ICCAC opponents DMACC and Iowa Lakes 3 times apiece, twice in the regular season and once in the region tournament.  They won 2 of 3 contests with DMACC and 1 of 3 against Iowa Lakes.  In the non-conference portion of their schedule, Ellsworth knocked of Macomb (Mich.) and lost at North Central Missouri, 2 more national tournament participants.

This will be the 4th time in the national tourney for an Ellsworth men's team.  They won the national championship in their first-ever trip in 1971, under coach Jim Carey.  ECC returned to the tournament in 1977 and finished 3rd, winning 4 of 5 games with Bud Fischer as the head coach.  Fischer took the Panthers back to the tournament in 1986, when they won their opening contest before dropping the next 2 games.  That victory was the 30th of the season for the Panthers, still a program record for wins in a season.