Thursday, June 18, 2009

2008-09 Season Review

The Indian Hills basketball team spent the entire season ranked among the top five teams in the country and went over four months between their first and second losses. But the Warriors saw their season come crashing down in the span of three days in March when they lost the last two games of the Region XI championship series with Southeastern. The Warriors wound up the year with a 30-3 record, but fell short in their quest for a third straight trip to the national tournament.

Indian Hills started the year ranked No. 1 in the nation. They had a memorable matchup with second-ranked Chipola Junior College from Florida in the second game of the season and the Warriors lost a heartbreaker, 63-62. They didn’t taste defeat again until the back-to-back losses to SCC.

In the 29 straight victories between their first and second losses, the Warriors dominated their opponents, outscoring them by an average of over 25 points a game. Indian Hills had the second-best defense in the country, setting a school record by allowing only 54 points a game. And they posted an undefeated conference record for the second time in three years, winning all six of their league games by an average of 21 points per contest.

The high-scoring duo of Dwight Buycks and Dwight Hardy gave the Warriors two All-American selections with Buycks named to the NJCAA All-American first team and Hardy being chosen for the third team. Buycks and Hardy both passed the 1,000 point barrier for their two-year careers during the regular season and each was named to the All-Region first team. Leon Powell and James Washington were named second-team All-Region and Marcus Relphorde and Damian Windham were honorable mention choices.