Warriors Survive First-Round Scare

Ottumwa -- The Indian Hills Warriors breathed a big sigh of relief when Marshalltown's Tyler Brown missed the second free throw in a two-shot situation with 2.2 seconds left in regulation, leaving Wednesday's first round game between IHCC and MCC tied at 72. Given new life in overtime, Indian Hills outscored the visitors 22-11 and advanced to the best-of-three league title series next week with a 94-83 victory.

The Tigers, the number-four seed, were poised to upset Indian Hills (25-6) on its home court, taking a five-point lead three times in the final minutes of the second half.

Will Clyburn, the conference's scoring leader, made a free throw with 54 seconds to play to give MCC (17-9) a 68-63 lead. And the prospects of Indian Hills making it into the regional playoff series for the fourth year in a row didn't look good.

Aaron Austin hit a free throw for IHCC and, after a defensive stop, Larry Stone buried a three-pointer to shave the lead to one point. Brown, who led all scorers with 33 points, nailed a pair of foul shots immediately after Stone's three to push the lead back to three at 70-67.

Stone found E.J. Hicks for a layup to make it a one-point game.

Clyburn then made one of two free throws and Stone followed with another three-pointer to put IHCC ahead, 72-71.

Stone then fouled Brown with 2.2 seconds on the clock and the IHCC crowd held its collective breath. But Brown, who made his 10th straight free throw with the first attempt, misfired on the second.

Chad Dillard started the overtime scoring for Indian Hills with a baseline drive for a 74-72 lead and MCC never got any closer than that.

With Indian Hills up by three 80-77 and just over a minute left in OT, Aaron Austin was given credit for a three-point basket that MCC coach Brynjar Brynjarrson thought came after the shot clock had expired.

The Tigers' coach went onto the floor to argue his case and was assessed two technical fouls and ejected from the game.

Stone made two of the four free throws for the technicals to build the lead to eight at 85-77 and the Warriors hit seven of eight free throws in the final minute.

Indian Hills scored the first seven points of the game, five of them by Dwan McMillan. McMillan already had 17 points at halftime, two shy of his season high, but was shut out the rest of the game.

Marshalltown ran off eight straight points to take an 8-7 lead and there would be four ties and six more lead changes in the first half.

The game was tied at 41 at intermission.

IHCC began the second half with another 7-0 run on a three by Dijon Farr and two buckets by Brian Wilson.

Brown showed his defensive ability with two steals which he turned into layups leading the Tigers back to a 52-52 tie.

Indian Hills held a 58-57 lead after a three by Stone, but Brown made four consecutive free throws and Clyburn scored to put MCC ahead by five.

Austin's basket with 3:35 left started the IHCC comeback that saw them eventually go ahead briefly on Stone's late three pointer.

The teams combined to shoot 80 free throws. Brown made 17-of-19 for MCC; Stone was 11-for-13 for the Warriors.

Stone didn't score a point until a pair of free throws with 12:33 left in the second half. He led IHCC with 21. Austin had all but two of his 15 points in the second half and overtime. He and Stone teamed up for 17 of the Warriors' 22 OT points.

Brown recovered from a slow start -- he had only five points at the half -- for his second 30-plus point game against IHCC.

Clyburn had a double-double with 13 rebounds to go along with his 24 points.

Indian Hills and Southeastern will be matched up in the Region 11 playoff series for the second year in a row. For the second straight year, the BlackHawks lost both regular season games to Iowa Western and then knocked them out of the postseason. SCC won 74-67 at Council Bluffs on Wednesday night.

Game one of the series will be at the Hellyer Center on Monday night at 7:00. The two teams meet at SCC on Wednesday and, if a third game is needed, Indian Hills will host it at 7:00 next Friday night.

INDIAN HILLS 94, MARSHALLTOWN 83 (OT)

INDIAN HILLS Dwan McMillan 4 6-8 17, Aaron Austin 4 6-10 15, Brandon Garrett 1 0-0 2, Bruno Ferreira 2 2-5 6, Dijon Farr 4 4-5 14, Larry Stone 4 11-13 21, Brian Wilson 4 0-1 8, E.J. Hicks 3 0-0 6, Chad Dillard 2 1-2 5 Team 28 30-44 94

MARSHALLTOWN Will Clyburn 7 8-13 24, DeMarcus Phillips 5 1-2 11, Tyler Brown 7 17-19 33, Javier Valdez 1 2-2 4, Vesteinn Sveinsson 0 0-0 0, Henrique Medeiros 1 0-0 2, Michael Appel 3 0-0 9, Rashad Porter 0 0-0 0 Team 24 28-36 83

Halftime score: Indian Hills 41, Marshalltown 41; End of regulation: Indian Hills 72, Marshalltown 72; Three-point field goals: IHCC 8 (McMillan 3, Farr 2, Stone 2, Austin 1), MCC 7 (Appel 3, Clyburn 2, Brown 2)