Rebounding keys MCC men past Ellsworth

The Tigers had just hammered Future Academy in Sunday's Emerson JUCO Challenge, and Brynjarsson came away from the score-fest praising his team's accomplishments on the glass.

He was singing the same tune on Wednesday night.

MCC?outrebounded Ellsworth 44-27, limited the host Panthers to 36 percent field-goal shooting and subsequently scored an 89-79 victory inside Martin Ellsworth Dittmer Gymnasium.

Rashaad Brown scored 22 points, Sherman Blanford had his second straight double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds, and Veisteinn Sveinsson poured in 19 points as the Tigers won for the fourth time in their last five games.

All the Tigers' offense, Brynjarsson says, was a byproduct of sticking to their guns on rebounding and defense.

"That's all we need to worry about right now," he said. "With that, a lot of good things are going to happen.

"It's all about our rebounding. "That's why we won two games last weekend and this game tonight. We got a lot out of what we were doing."

MCC won its third straight after jumping out to a 50-32 halftime lead and keeping Ellsworth (6-6) at arm's reach the rest of the way. The Panthers, behind a game-high 29 points from Bill Freeman, fought to within eight points in the second half but could get no closer.

The loss was Ellsworth's fifth in its last six outings.

"We started the game off confident and we played hard, we rebounded out and we were guarding fairly hard," Brynjarsson added.

Brown finished 7-of-13 from the field and 7-of-10 from the free-throw line en route to his 22 points. Blanford was 10-for-14 from the floor, while Sveinsson converted 5-of-6 shots from 3-point range.

Chris Caird contributed 10 points, going 8-for-8 from the line.

Marshalltown returns to action on Saturday, visiting NIACC in Mason City for a 4 p.m. showdown.