By Marissa VanWingen
The largest separation between the second-place team in the ICCAC and the last place squad was 12 points as Ellsworth Community College escaped Estherville with the 78-72 win.
It took just over four minutes before ECC scored their first points of the game and then a free throw by Chase Low evened the score at 9-9. The visitors led the first time on Jonovan Wilkinson's triple (13-11) as the two traded leads. Wilkinson's layup then put the Panthers on top once again (20-19) as ECC scored 11 unanswered to build a 30-19 lead. The Lakers (2-16, 0-9) finally ended their scoring lull as the visitors went into the locker room leading 38-28.
The largest difference came at the start of the second half on a Rav Randhawa jumper as the Panthers went up by 12 (40-28). Iowa Lakes battled back at the 6:22 mark, they had cut the deficit to just five – 63-58. ECC kept the hosts at arm's length, but the Lakers were able to keep the game interesting. With just under four minutes to go, the Lakers were within one (65-64).
Jermaine Freeman was hot for the Lakers late in the contest and finished with a game-high 24 points. His basket put Iowa Lakes ahead by one (70-69) with 2:10 to go. A miss and then putback from Jayden Pretty allowed the visitors to go back up by one – 71-70.
Iowa Lakes missed their next go-ahead try and ECC (16-2, 7-2) got the rebound. Pretty made his eighth basket of the night to create a little more separation, but the Lakers wouldn't go away as they cut the difference once again, this time to 73-72.
In the final 38 seconds, the Panthers were five of six from the charity stripe to hold on for the win.
Pretty led ECC with a double-double of 18 rebounds and 21 points. Wilkinson finished with 11 points for the visitors.
For more on ECC Athletics, visit https://www.timescitizen.com/sports/ecc/
ICCAC Basketball
Wednesday at Estherville
ECC: 38| 40 – 78
ILCC: 28| 44 – 72
ECC Scoring: Jayden Pretty 0 5-8 21; Jonovan Wilkinson 3 4-4 11; Christian Johnson 3 0-1 8; Jacob Khounsourath 1 4-4 7; Chase Low 2 2-7 6; Collins Ngondu 2 0-0 6; Rav Randhawa 1 3-4 5; Tanner Berggren 2 0-0 4; Eesher Singh Sarai 0 3-4 3; Will Taylor 1 0-0 3; Dan Pembele 0 2-2 2; Ryland Ubben 1 0-1 2.