Not many people want to book trips to the Dakotas in November, but the Iowa Energy might be an exception.

For the second year in a row the Energy opened the D-League season with a pair of road wins against highly touted division rivals.

Last year Iowa came into Bismarck and took two from the defending D-League champion Dakota Wizards. They got off on the right foot again this year, following up Friday's win at Sioux Falls with a 106-103 victory over the Wizards on Saturday, spoiling Dakota's debut.

"We must have training camp figured out," Iowa coach Nick Nurse said. "It's the rest of the season that got difficult for us."

The Wizards played well at times and led much of the night. But it wasn't the kind of performance the Wizards, who have a lineup full of former all-stars, were hoping for in their season debut.

"It's a long season," Wizards coach Duane Ticknor said. "We're obviously disappointed that we didn't get this win, but next week we have to do what they did, go out on the road and get some wins.

"That's a good basketball team we played. They played really well together."

The Wizards led by as much as 10 points late in the third quarter. But Iowa (2-0) got three critical 3-pointers in the final five minutes, two from Cartier Martin and one from Larry Ayuso.

Martin, who finished with 17 points, hadn't scored since the opening minute of the second half. Ayuso went nearly 24 minutes between field goals.

"We were pretty fortunate tonight, Ithink, to be honest," Nurse said. "We had a couple of guys hit shots that hadn't been involved in a long time. They're capable, and they should have probably been involved more."

It was Martin's last 3 that was the real killer, putting Iowa up 102-100 with 1:44 to go. Former Wizard Curtis Stinson increased the lead to four, with 1:10 to play, but Renaldo Major answered with a 3-pointer for the Wizards.

After getting a defensive stop, the Wizards had a chance to move ahead. Major grabbed the rebound of a missed 15-footer by Hamed Haddadi, but lost the ball. Martin was fouled and hit two free throws, making it 106-103 with 16.4 seconds left.

The Wizards had two chances to tie. Quemont Greer had an open look up top, but misfired, then David Bell was off-target from the left wins

Dakota had six players reach double figures in scoring, led by Major with 19. Maurice Baker had 16 points, eight assists and eight rebounds. Haddadi - the 7-foot-2 Iranian center on assignment from Memphis, had 14 points and six rebounds in 21 minutes.

"He just hasn't played since the Olympics, so he's a little bit rusty,"Ticknor said. "He's got some things to work on, and that's why he's here."

Haddadi and rookie Marcus Hubbard were the key players when Dakota pushed out to its biggest lead (76-66). Each had four points in a 9-0 run. Hubbard finished the game with 13 points, 11 in the third quarter.

"I thought Hubbard and (Brad)Stricker really played well off the bench, gave us a good lift, offensively and defensively,"Ticknor said.

Despite that, the Wizards had trouble matching up with Iowa center Courtney Sims. Sims had his second huge night in a row with 23 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots, impressing Nurse.

"He's a different athlete this year,"Nurse said. "He's moving so much better. … He's just livelier."

Ticknor felt the Wizards needed to be more aggressive.

"We didn't finish around the rim tonight,"he said. "I thought we were a little intimidated. We had opportunities to dunk the basketball, and we floated in there and didn't even get ourselves to the foul line. We need to be more aggressive in the post area and finish."

The Wizards don't play again until Wednesday, when they travel to Austin.

"We'll keep our heads up and keep battling and learn from our mistakes," Ticknor said.

Iowa 27 51 74 106

Wizards 24 53 82 103

IOWA(106):Cartier Martin 5-11 4-4 17, Patrick Sanders 3-11 6-6 13, Courtney Sims 8-14 7-10 23, Curtis Stinson 5-10 0-0 14, Larry Ayuso 5-10 0-0 14, Othyus Jeffers 5-9 1-2 12, Brian Evans 4-6 3-3 11, Aristide Sawadogo 0-0 0-0 0, Marvin Phillips 2-5 0-1 4. Totals 36-81 26-30 106.

WIZARDS(103):Renaldo Major 6-12 5-8 19, Quemont Greer 4-8 3-4 11, Will Frisby 2-9 3-4 7, Denham Brown 3-8 1-2 8, Maurice Baker 6-14 3-3 16, Hamed Haddadi 5-11 4-6 14, Carlos English 0-3 0-0 0, Jawaan McClellan 0-3 0-0 0, David Bell 4-11 2-22 11, Brad Stricker 2-3 0-0 4, Marcus Hubbard 5-10 2-2 13. Totals 37-92 23-31 103.

3-pointers:I 8-15 (Ayuso 4-5, Martin 3-5, Sanders 1-1, Jeffers 0-1, Stinson 0-3), W 6-14 (Major 2-3, Brown 1-1, Hubbard 1-1, Baker 1-3, Bell 1-4, Greer 0-1, English 0-1). Rebounds:I 49 (Sims 12, Stinson 12), W 48 (Greer 10). Assists:I15 (Stinson 5), W 23 (Baker 8). Fouls: I 21, W 29. Technical fouls:I1 - defensive 3 seconds. Steals:I 4 (four with 1), W 11 (four with 2). Turnovers:I 15, W 9. Blocked shots:I 7 (Sims 5), W 4 (four with 1).

A:3,467.

Records: I 2-0; W 0-1.