Kirkwood Mens Basketball

No. 6 Kirkwood men pound Ellsworth

IOWA FALLS - Da'Rion King scored 15 points Wednesday night as the sixth-ranked Kirkwood Eagles dumped Ellsworth, 79-54, in a junior college basketball game in Iowa Falls.

The Eagles raised their records to 24-4 overall and 9-2 in the conference. Kirkwood can earn a share of the ICCAC title with a victory over NIACC Saturday at Johnson Hall.

Southwestern won Wednesday night and finished the conference race with a 10-2 record. Iowa Lakes also won Wednesday night and has a 9-2 mark. If Kirkwood and Iowa Lakes win Saturday, the race will finish in a three-way tie.

Hunter Rhodes scored 11 points for the Eagles Wednesday night and Byron Harp added 10.

Yach Deng scored 23 points for Ellsworth (13-14, 4-7).

KIRKWOOD (79): Bartlett 0 0-0 0, Rhodes 4 2-2 11, Richards 3 2-2 9, Jackson 4 1-2 9, Harp 4 0-0 10, Fagan 1 4-4 6, Olson 4 0-0 8, Meier 2 0-0 4, Wilson 2 0-1 4, Henry 1 1-1 3, Triplett 0 0-0 0, King 5 5-6 15. Totals 31 16-18 79.

ELLSWORTH (54): Arrington 2 0-1 4, Batie-Gaddy 5 3-3 15, Caster 1 2-2 4, Deng 6 10-10 23, Evans 1 0-0 2, Fuller 1 0-0 3, Johnson 0 0-0 0, O'Large 1 1-2 3, Thok 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 16-18 54.

Halftime - Kirkwood 37, Ellsworth 26. 3-point goals - Kirkwood 4 (Harp 2, Rhodes 1, Richards 1), Ellsworth 4 (Batie-Gaddy 2, Deng 1, Fuller 1).

Kirkwood wins, ICCAC race tightens

The big news as far as the Kirkwood men's basketball team was concerned Saturday happened in Mason City.

As the No. 9 Eagles were taking care of business with a convincing 87-52 win over Iowa Central at Johnson Hall, they got a big helping hand from Iowa Lakes in their quest for an ICCAC title.

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Kirkwood rolls by Loras JV, 113-64

Da'Rion King and Kaliph Fagan scored 16 points apiece Tuesday night as the 14th-ranked Kirkwood Eagles pummeled the Loras junior varsity, 113-64, in a men's basketball game at Johnson Hall.

Nick Richards scored 13 points for Kirkwood (22-4). Al'Tavius Jackson, Josh Meier and Cristen Wilson had 12 points apiece as six Eagles scored in double figures.

Jake Toman led Loras with 17 points.

LORAS JV (64): Chavez 4 2-2 12, McDermott 2 0-0 6, Shute 2 0-0 5, Toman 6 3-5 17, Young 3 2-2 8, Khan 1 0-0 2, Fanara 0 0-0 0, Baker 0 0-0 0, Duffy 0 2-2 2, Lange 0 0-0 0, Reiter 1 3-4 5 Kelley 3 0-0 7. Totals 22 12-15 64.

KIRKWOOD (113): Bartlett 2 0-0 6, Rhodes 3 0-0 8, Richards 4 4-4 13, Olson 3 0-1 6, King 8 0-0 16, Jackson 2 7-10 12, Harp 2 2-2 6, Fagan 6 3-4 16, Meier 5 2-2 12, Wilson 4 4-6 12, Henry 1 0-0 2, Triplett 2 0-0 4. Totals 42 22-29 113.

Halftime - Kirkwood 55, Loras JV 27. 3-point goals - Loras JV 8 (Chavez 2, McDermott 2, Toman 2, Shute 1, Kelley 1), Kirkwood 7 (Bartlett 2, Rhodes 2, Richards 1, Jackson 1, Fagan 1).

Eagles blitz No.4 Southwestern, 86-55

Offense has come pretty easy for the Kirkwood men's basketball team this season.

It's the defense that has been a problem at times for Coach Bryan Petersen's team.

On Saturday, the No. 14 Eagles picked a great time to click on both ends of the court. They scored the first 11 points of the game en route to an 86-55 rout over No. 4 Southwestern, 86-55, in an ICCAC game at Johnson Hall.

The win avenged an earlier 85-75 loss to the Spartans in Creston and pulled the Eagles back to within a game of Southwestern in the league standings.

Needless to say, Petersen didn't expect to hang a 31-point loss on Southwestern.

"Obviously, we got off to a good start," said Petersen, who saw his team move to 21-4 overall, 7-2 in league play. "They're a really good team. There's a reason they are ranked the way they are. We really didn't break it open until the middle of the second half."

Kirkwood may not have broken it open, but it never seemed like Southwestern ever got comfortable running its offense. The Eagle defense was aggressive from start to finish, forcing 16 turnovers and holding the Spartans to 38 percent shooting from the field for the game.

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