By Marissa VanWingen

Fourth-ranked Ellsworth Community College overcame a first half deficit to win 75-72 over ninth-place Western Iowa Tech Community College. The win improved their record to 14-1 record and a 5-1 mark in the ICCAC as they head into the holiday break.

The Comets (3-9, 0-5) led most of the first 20 minutes of the game. A Tanner Berggren three-ball evened the score for the first time, 20-20. The visitors went on top for the first time with a triple from Kadir Crawford (27-26), but they could not pull away. Later in the half, WIT made a jumper to even the score at 36-36 and then hit one of two free throws to take the one-point advantage at the break.

The hosts held the lead and went up by as many as seven at 53-46. Jayden Pretty's jumper evened the score at 54-all before a three-ball by Christian Johnson made it a one-point Panther advantage - 57-56. Jacob Khounsourath's make from beyond the arc with just under nine minutes to go pushed the ECC lead to 60-56.

The largest difference the Panthers reached was eight (68-60), but it was short lived. The Comets went on a 12-4 run and evened the score once again this time at 72-all with 41 seconds remaining. A Berggren triple ended the game as ECC escaped with the victory.

Three Panthers were in double figures for the visitors, lead by Pretty with 19. Eesher Singh Sarai tallied 12 and Khounsourath added 11.

For more on ECC Athletics, visit https://www.timescitizen.com/sports/ecc/

ICCAC Basketball
Wednesday at Sioux City

ECC: 36| 39 – 75
WIT: 37| 35 – 72

ECC Scoring: Jayden Pretty 7 5-5 19; Eesher Singh Sarai 5 2-2 12; Jacob Khounsourath 3 2-2 11; Tanner Berggren 3 0-0 8; Christian Johnson 2 3-3 8; Jonovan Wilkinson 2 1-1 5; Will Taylor 2 0-0 4; Chase Low 0 3-3 3; Kadir Crawford 1 0-0 3; Alex Charlotin 1 0-0 2.