The Iowa Energy put up a good fight, but the Sioux Falls Skyforce dominated the fourth quarter to post a 103-84 win on Friday night at Wells Fargo Arena.

This game recap will be a little different that others because of the rare occasion that I described the action on the radio from outside of Sioux Falls. Naturally there were a lot more details involved.

Freshly fallen snow in western Iowa greeted me early in the trip, with moderate rain appearing the closer I got to Des Moines. Fortunately the temperatures made the precip just rain.

Prior to the game, a quick chat with rookie guard Marcus Posley revealed a confidence that things were going to go well for Sioux Falls. “Coach has us prepared,” or a variation of that phrase came out a couple times when referring to the game.

Head Coach Nevada Smith is a bit concerned by his team’s offense in that the shots aren’t falling. Most of the time the Skyforce (12-3) are getting the shots they want as opposed to taking bad shots.

To a person, people admit that the Energy (2-14) are really struggling. Injuries have truly decimated the team. Only eight players suited up for Iowa and two of them were signed on Wednesday for the Friday game.

It’s also different doing a game at the scorer’s table, compared to being up in the press box. Those players, coaches and officials all get an earful from the Wells Fargo faithful.

Sioux Falls and Iowa were tied at 66 late in the third quarter before the visitors started rolling and built a 22 point lead at 99-77. Ike Nwamu scored 11 of his 16 tallies in that deciding stretch going 3 of 3 from downtown to stretch the lead. Also perfect in the 4th was Briante Weber hitting all three of his shots from inside the arc on the way to 24 points plus 4 steals. All game long Keith Benson put forth a strong effort by scoring 18 and grabbing 18 rebounds.

Iowa’s JaKarr Sampson was the highest scorer of all combatants by scoring 28 points. Next was one of the new guys as DeAndre Mathieu contributed 15 points. Notably, Mathieu was part of training camp with the Skyforce before being left off the 12-man roster.

Iowa plays next on Tuesday against the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Sioux Falls will host the traditional Christmas Day game at the Sanford Pentagon against the Northern Arizona Suns.

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