By Marissa VanWingen, The Times Citizen
Ellsworth Community College had a lead for two minutes against Kirkwood Community College, but could not sustain the advantage. Scoring slumps and turnovers led to a 71-45 final, with the Panthers suffering their first Iowa Community College Athletic Conference loss of the season.
The Eagles (18-0, 8-0) are number one for a reason. So far this season they are averaging 79.8 points per game and have drained 155 rebounds. Defensively, Kirkwood has allowed on average 40 points and nab 15.7 steals per game.
In front of a home crowd, a much improved 17th-ranked ECC (14-2, 7-1) held the Eagles to their third lowest offensive output within the league and is just one of two squads to keep the margin closer than 30 points.
The lead came for the hosts on a pair of freebies by Marin Agustsdottir to make it 2-0. The Eagles responded and drained one of their 11 triples to go on top for the first time and they never looked back. ECC did not score again until the five minute mark and the first six of their points all came from Agustsdottir. Both teams struggled offensively in the opening stanza with Kirkwood leading by a manageable 18-10 after 10 minutes.
The difference reached double digits for the first time in the second quarter. The Eagles went on 10-2 run that was helped by 10 of the Panthers 32 turnovers. The advantage swelled to 37-18 at the break with the visitors outscoring ECC 19-8.
In the biggest regular season game to be played by the Panther women in a long time, they relaxed in the second half but could not claw their way back. The closest the hosts could get was 16 on an Agustsdottir triple. Agustsdottir led the hosts with 11 points and Ella Sharar added 10 points and nine rebounds.
While Kirkwood hit 11 long balls and were 52 percent from downtown – led by Kaliyah Sain with 24 points and four triples - ECC was 20 percent and hit just four.
ICCAC Basketball
Wednesday at Iowa Falls
KCC: 18| 19| 24| 10 – 71
ECC: 10| 8| 17| 10 – 45
ECC: Marin Agustsdottir 3 4-4 11; Ella Sharar 4 0-0 10; Taylor Ross 3 1-2 7; Claudia Sanz 2 0-0 4; Favour Anyaele 1 2-5 4; Rosario Panadero 1 2-2 4; Laia Santanch 1 0-0 3; KeyKey Jefferson 1 0-0 2.