Warriors Clinch First by Thumping Reivers

Ottumwa -- The Indian Hills Warriors took the drama out of the final weekend of the conference season by nailing down the league championship on Saturday night at the Hellyer Center. The Warriors held visiting Iowa Western to a season-low point total in a 63-45 win. That victory, coupled with Marshalltown's 111-109 win against Southeastern, leaves IHCC two games ahead of the other three league schools with one game to play.

It's the second straight ICCAC title for Indian Hills and its third in the past four years.

One of the major differences in the Warriors' win over Iowa Western was three-point shooting. IHCC made nine threes in the game while limiting the Reivers to only two.

And it was when Indian Hills made their three-pointers that was key. Iowa Western took an 11-9 lead about midway through the first half. IHCC first tied the score at 11, then sped away to a 20-11 advantage on a three-pointer by E.J. Hicks and two by Larry Stone.

The Warriors grabbed a 26-19 halftime lead and their final 15 points of the half came on four 3's and a three-point play by Bruno Ferreira.

Indian Hills continued the pattern of scoring their points in threes at the start of the second half. Dwan McMillan made the first of two free throws in the opening minute of the half. He missed the second try, but the Warriors grabbed the rebound and Aaron Austin hit a jump shot to put IHCC ahead 29-19.

Iowa Western battled back to within three at 36-33 on a layup by Tyrone Black. The Warriors then responded with a game-deciding 16-2 run.

It was four threes in that IHCC spurt that allowed the Warriors to coast home with their sixth win in a row against the Reivers. Stone made two more threes in the run and Austin and Dijon Farr each had one.

Stone ended the night's scoring with four straight free throws. He led all scorers with 17 points, the ninth time in the last 10 games he has scored in double figures off the IHCC bench.

Stone wasn't the only Indian Hills reserve who contributed to the win. Brian Wilson scored six of the Warriors' first nine points, but had to leave the game after picking up two quick fouls. Chano Rashiduddin came on and supplied some tough interior defense in Wilson's absence.

When Wilson was saddled with four fouls three minutes into the second half, Alex Vouyoukas took over in the post and had three rebounds and an assist while playing valuable minutes.

Farr had 11 points for Indian Hills and Austin scored all of his nine points in the final 20 minutes.

Anthony Salter and Petey Hausley led IWCC with 11 each.

While Indian Hills has wrapped up the conference title and a home game in the first round of the postseason Region XI tourney, Iowa Western, Marshalltown and Southeastern will be battling for the second seed and the right to host the other first-round game.

IHCC goes to Southeastern this Saturday while Marshalltown travels to Iowa Western.

The Warriors play their final regular season home game on Tuesday night against Moberly (MO).

INDIAN HILLS 63, IOWA WESTERN 45

INDIAN HILLS Dwan McMillan 0 4-8 4, Aaron Austin 2 4-6 9, Brandon Garrett 2 0-0 4, Bruno Ferreira 3 1-1 7, Chano Rashiduddin 0 0-0 0, Derrick Hill 0 0-0 0, Dijon Farr 4 0-0 11, Larry Stone 4 5-6 17, Brian Wilson 3 2-2 8, E.J. Hicks 1 0-0 3, Alex Vouyoukas 0 0-0 0, Chad Dillard 0 0-0 0 Team 19 16-23 63

IOWA WESTERN Anthony Salter 3 4-5 11, Shay Shine 1 0-1 3, Charlie Westbrook 1 0-0 2, Sammy Emile 2 6-7 10, Jimmy Williams 1 2-4 4, Petey Hausley 5 1-1 11, Wesley Cox 1 0-0 2, Jeff Allgood 0 0-0 0, Tyrone Black 1 0-0 2, K.C. Rodenburg 0 0-0 0 Team 15 13-18 45

Halftime score: Indian Hills 26, Iowa Western 19; Three-point field goals: IHCC 9 (Stone 4, Farr 3, Austin 1, Hicks 1), IWCC 2 (Salter 1, Shine 1)