By Marissa VanWingen, The Times Citzen
mvanwingen@iafalls.com
The first time Ellsworth Community College and NIACC played, the Panthers upset an 11th-rated Trojan squad 76-72 and it put the league on notice. While the visitors were never able to pull away from the Trojans on Wednesday, they did leave Mason City with the 86-77 win and remain in second place in the ICCAC standings.
Early in the first stanza the NIACC (17-5, 8-4) were able to grab three of its 14 steals and a one-point difference (11-10) quickly swelled to a nine-point Trojan advantage. Laia Santanach drained one of her four baskets from downtown to end the scoring drought and Ella Sharar backed that up with a triple of her own to make it 19-16. Both teams already in the bonus in a game that had 48 fouls called, the Panthers (18-3, 9-2) were six of eight from the line the final two minutes of the quarter to lead 24-23.
There were four lead changes and two ties in the second quarter with ECC coming out on top 38-35 when Sharar knocked down another basket from downtown. Santanach followed Sharar with a triple of her own and it was 41-39 at the half.
The Panthers could not create much separation in the third stanza, with three more lead changes and three ties. Neither team led by more than three points. Once again, ECC was sent to the line and were 8-10, leading by a slight 61-60 edge going into the final 10 minutes.
NIACC took the lead and went up by three (64-61) and there would be three more lead exchanges. The Trojans held their largest advantage of the game, up 70-65 on one of their four three-pointers. Rosario Panadero drained a shot from outside the arc with 3:21 left to go in the game and was fouled. She made her free throw for the rare four-point play to make it a tied game. Sharar then her fifth (she led all scoring with 24 points) from outside to put the visitors up and they would never trail again. ECC finished going 26 of 36 from the line for the game.
Along with Sharar, Panadero finished with 18, Santanach with 16 and Taylor Ross tallied 10. As a team, they hit 10 long balls – tied for a season high.
An undefeated Kirkwood Community College remains atop the leaderboard with the Panthers just behind/ NIACC, Northeast and DMACC all have four conference losses.
For more on ECC Athletics, click here: https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwww.timescitizen.com%2fsports%2fecc%2f&c=E,1,RncKmkSK0iKCvpJVhei2477v98J-GltZgorYLyCtekqXsQnCfomjBEun9QQpu9rdlmSZVnFdUUxw99l2cqhPZ9SCZcBOMm5G3RPmGeGVmSagsV4yZ-VZkg,,&typo=1
ICCAC Basketball
Wednesday at Mason City
ECC: 24| 17| 20| 25 – 86
NIACC: 23| 16| 21| 17 – 77
ECC Scoring: Ella Sharar 8 3-4 24; Rosario Panadero 6 5-9 18; Laia Santanach 5 2-2 16; Taylor Ross 2 6-6 10; Marin Agustsdottir 2 5-6 9; Favour Anyaele 2 2-3 6; Claudia Sanz 0 3-6 3.