By Marissa VanWingen, The Times Citizen
Despite the Ellsworth Community College coming into Wednesday night's game as the heavy favorite, ranked 10th in the new NJCAA polls, Northeast Community College gave them all they could handle.
he Hawks trailed by just four after the first half and were within two possessions late in the game. It wasn't until the final three and a half minutes the hosts were able to create any separation and escape with the 89-79 win.
The Panthers could not distance themselves from NECC in the first 20 minutes. ECC would go up on top by six on a fade away jumper by Tre Burris (32-26) and then the largest spread would be 37-30 after a Hubert Bayigamba triple, but it was short lived. The Hawks came back and cut the deficit to two with just over a minute and a half left and knotted the score at 39-39. Burris drained a three and then his three ball rang the bottom of the net at the buzzer to send the hosts into the locker room with the 45-41 lead.
Early in the second stanza the difference remained the same. Enki Diarra-Gentes hit one of his trio of three-pointers and then a Jack Scrivner put back made it a 10-point lead (62-52) for the first time with 14:45 left. NECC would score six unanswered to cut the difference to four before Rav Randhawa drained a three ball to keep the game at a seven-point difference. The Hawks would once again get within three but could never get closer than that. The Panthers hit 13 three-pointers, including another one for Diarra-Gentes to keep the visitors at arms length. Randhawa finished with 16 points and drained a long ball with 3:30 left in the game to make it 83-72 and ECC held on for the win.
While both teams were in the double bonus for a long time, neither connected on their free throws. The Panthers were 14 of 27 from the line and NECC was 17-22 for the game.
Along with Randhawa, Burris led all scoring with 21 points and Jonovan Wilkinson added 10.
Ellsworth 89, Northeast 79
Wednesday at Iowa Falls
NECC: 41| 38 – 79
ECC: 45| 44 – 89
ECC Scoring: Tre Burris 8 2-2 21; Rav Randhawa 6 1-2 16; Jonovan Wilkinson 4 0-0 10; Enki Diarra-Gentes 3 0-0 9; Hubert Bayigamba 3 1-5 8; Rollings Kamanda 1 6-8 8; Themba Tshuma 3 1-6 7; Tanner Berggren 2 0-0 5; Taevean Famutimi-Brown 0 3-4 3; Jack Scrivner 1 0-0 2.