By Marissa VanWingen, The Times Citizen
One day after entering the NJCAA Division II basketball polls, Ellsworth Community College (10-1, 3-0) hosted Northeast Community College. Both teams came in with nine wins on the season and the Hawks (9-3, 2-2) were also receiving votes in the recent rankings.
Despite an ugly third quarter, 25th-rated Panthers defended Dittmer Gymnasium with the 73-58 victory.
The two squads played to a 20-20 even tie after the first quarter with three lead changes. The visitors held a six point advantage (18-12) before a Marin Agustsdottir triple cut the difference to three. Taylor Ross hit one of two freebies to knot the score at 20-all.
The two would be even one more time, at 22-22 before the Panthers made a run. ECC scored seven unanswered to jumpstart the scoring surge. On top 29-26, Agustsdottir drained back-to-back three-pointers followed by a long ball by Ella Sharar to quickly go up by 12. Agustsdottir would hit one more triple in the half and the Panthers went into the locker room on top 43-26.
NECC was able to use turnovers and cut into the deficit, but a KeyKey Jefferson triple – ECC drained nine to the Hawks two – pushed the hosts to a 54-43 lead going into the final quarter.
The Panther defense locked down and allowed just one field goal the final 10 minutes and outscored the visitors 19-4 to pick up the win.
Sharar led all scoring with 21 points for the hosts while Agustsdottir finished with 17 and Ross was also in double figures with 12.
Ellsworth 73, Northeast 58
Wednesday at Iowa Falls
NECC: 20| 6| 17| 4 – 58
ECC: 20| 23| 8| 19 – 73
ECC Scoring: Ella Sharar 9 1-2 21; Marin Agustsdottir 6 1-2 17; Taylor Ross 4 4-7 12; Laia Santanach 3 0-0 8; Rosario Panadero 2 0-0 6; Favour Anyaele 1 2-3 4; KeyKey Jefferson 1 0-0 3; Nile Celaya 1 0-0 2.