By Marissa VanWingen
Ellsworth Community College and NIACC met in Mason City on Wednesday.
The 12th ranked Trojans had to hold off the Panthers in a 57-50 final.
It was the visitors that jumped out to an early lead, on top 8-0. Of those eight points, Asia Beale had six. The Trojans (10-1, 4-1) did not get on the board until more than four minutes had come off the clock and the first point was a free throw. The lead extended to 11-3 on a Rebekka Holm triple before NIACC went on a 11-0 run to end the period. The Panthers were cold, ending their scoring lull with a pair of freebies by Claudia Sanz Dorange and trailed 14-13 after the first 10 minutes.
To open the second period, Sofia Berraquero Beltran drained a pair of triples back-to-back to give the visitors the 21-16 lead. The Trojans responded and took the 22-21 lead and ended the quarter on another scoring spree, 8-0 and were on top 26-21.
With a shallow bench of just three subs the last thing ECC (6-5, 2-3) could do was get in foul trouble, but by the end of the half multiple players were playing with three fouls. Two ended up fouling out by the end of the game and two others finished with four.
Beltran would hit her third long ball of the game early in the second half to cut the deficit to two (26-24) but could never stop NIACC's runs or take the lead again. The largest spread was 41-31 with 2:21 left in the third quarter. A Sanz Dorange make with 1:15 would once again get ECC with striking distance, but the visitors would trail 46-39 heading into the final quarter.
The closest the Panthers would get would be five, but could never cut the difference to a single possession.
Sanz Dorange led with 14 points, followed by Beale with 12 and Beltran added 11 for the visitors.
For more on ECC Athletics, visit https://www.timescitizen.com/sports/ecc/
ICCAC Basketball
Wednesday at Mason City
ECC: 13| 8| 18| 11- 50
NIACC: 14| 12| 20| 11 – 57
ECC Scoring: Claudia Sanz Dorange 6 2-2 14; Asia Beale 5 2-7 12; Sofia Berraquero Beltran 4 0-0 11; Rebekka Holm 2 0-0 6; Inma Martinez 2 0-1 4; Yaiza Soriano Balaguer 1 0-0 2; Addy Dennis 0 1-2 1.