By Marissa VanWingen
With a 98-83 victory on the road at Northeast Community College, Ellsworth Community College improved to 10-0 on the season and 2-0 in the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference.
"From the outside looking in, 10-0/2-0 with two road games and seven road or neutral wins, arguably the best win in the country and have a chance to be ranked number one, amazing," said Panther coach Bryan Bender. "But we still have a long way to go. Need sustained passion, we have to keep the selfish thoughts out as we practice humility, and our discipline tonight wasn't where it needed to be to have championship level consistency."
The two squads were separated by one point (7-6) when the visitors went on a 14-0 scoring spree – started by an Eesher Singh Sarai jump shot and capped by an Alex Charlotin layup to make the difference 21-6. The Hawks (4-4, 0-2) cut the deficit to five (34-29) before ECC went on another run and ended the half on another mini run to lead 43-33 at the break. Singh Sarai led all scoring in the first half with 13 points, three rebounds and a block.
In the second 20 minutes the Panthers largest advantage was 24 on a Jonovan Wilkinson jumper (80-56). The hosts could never get closer than 13 the rest of the way.
Throughout the first 10 games this season, unselfish offensive play has been a highlight for ECC. Eleven different players reached the scoring column in the recent win with four reaching double figures. Charlotin finished with 22 points, followed by Singh Sarai with 19 and Chase Low added 17 (12 in the second half). Rav Randhawa was the other player in double digits with 11 points.
While the Panthers only nabbed two offensive rebounds, second chance opportunities were not needed. The visitors shot lights out, making 60.3 percent from the floor.
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ICCAC Basketball
Sunday at Norfolk, Neb.
ECC: 43| 55 – 98
NECC: 33| 50 – 83
ECC Scoring: Alex Charlotin 10 2-4 22; Eesher Singh Sarai 7 5-7 19; Chase Low 6 4-6 17; Rav Randhawa 3 2-2 11; Jonovan Wilkinson 4 0-0 8; Christian Johnson 1 4-4 6; Jayden Pretty 3 0-2 6; Jacob Khounsourath 1 0-0 3; Will Taylor 1 0-0 2; Tanner Berggren 1 0-0 2; Kadir Crawford 1 0-0 2.