West Burlington, IA -- For the second year in a row, the Indian Hills Warriors were denied a chance to add a Region 11 postseason championship to their regular season title. And for the second consecutive season, archrival Southeastern CC was the team that kept the Warriors from the postseason crown.
Freshman Abby Ruple's layup with 5.4 seconds to play was the game-winner on Wednesday night as SCC pulled out a 62-60 win over Indian Hills (25-8) in the second game of the best-of-three regional title series.
The Warriors pushed the ball up the court following Ruple's basket, but E.J. Hicks misfired on a three-point attempt that would have won the game.
Instead, it's the BlackHawks (23-10) who move on to play in the District 11 championship game next Tuesday night on their home court.
Indian Hills and Southeastern had struggled to make shots in Game 1 of the series on Monday night, a 53-49 SCC win.
Both offenses were much more efficient on Wednesday. Southeastern shot 58.5% for the game and was even better than that from 3-point range -- 66.7% (8-of-12). The Warriors made 52.4% of their field goals and 7-of-15 3s (46.7%). Each team had only 11 turnovers.
Indian Hills took its final lead on the 7th lead change of the game when Hicks made one of two free throws with 3:15 remaining to make the score 56-55.
Steven Baker, who along with Paris Gulley led SCC with 14 points, then hit a jumper in the lane and followed with two free throws to put the BlackHawks on top 59-56.
Aaron Austin, IHCC's top scorer with 19, hit an acrobatic shot in the lane to bring the Warriors to within one. After an SCC free throw the Warriors had the ball with 29.8 seconds to play.
Following two straight IHCC time-outs, Larry Stone scored from the right baseline, his only points of the game, to knot the score at 60-all.
Southeastern called their final time out with 16.4 seconds left to set up the play on which Ruple scored the game-winner.
Indian Hills had two six-point leads in the first half, the largest advantage for either team in the game. Dwan McMillan, one of six Indian Hills sophs who saw their IHCC careers come to a close, scored on a three-point play to end the first-half scoring and put the Warriors ahead, 37-33, at the half.
Indian Hills had six threes in the first half along with two old-fashioned three-point plays and three free throws by Hicks after he was fouled on a three-point try.
SCC was down at halftime despite making nearly 61% of their field goal attempts. And the BlackHawks' leading scorer, Norvell Arnold, sat out most of the first half after getting two early fouls.
Arnold started the second half with three field goals in less than four minutes to bring SCC from behind. He wouldn't score again however and fouled out with 6:15 to play.
IHCC trailed briefly by four points, but Austin drained a three to cut the deficit to one and neither team led by more than three points the rest of the game.
Two free throws by Dijon Farr gave Indian Hills a 55-53 lead with a little under five minutes left, and it was Baker who tied the score at 55 for SCC. Hicks' free throw preceded Baker's four straight points and set the stage for the tense final two minutes.
Indian Hills outrebounded the BlackHawks, 25-20, and SCC, amazingly, had only three offensive rebounds the entire game. But SCC still managed to break the hearts of the Warriors, just as they had done in last year's title series when they scored in the final seconds to down IHCC in overtime.
SOUTHEASTERN 62, INDIAN HILLS 60
SOUTHEASTERN A.D. Simmons 1 0-0 2, Steven Baker 5 3-4 14, Norvell Arnold 3 0-0 7, Mason Leggett 0 0-0 0, Paris Gulley 5 0-0 14, Jeron Lee 2 1-2 6, Rinaldo Mafra 1 0-0 2, Abby Ruple 4 0-0 9, Mansa Habeeb 3 2-6 8 Team 24 6-12 62
INDIAN HILLS Dwan McMillan 3 3-6 10, Aaron Austin 8 0-0 19, Brandon Garrett 1 0-0 2, Bruno Ferreira 1 0-0 2, Dijon Farr 6 2-3 17, Larry Stone 1 0-2 2, Brian Wilson 2 0-0 4, E.J. Hicks 0 4-5 4, Chad Dillard 0 0-0 0 Team 22 9-16 60
Halftime score: Indian Hills 37, Southeastern 33; Three-point field goals: SCC 8 (Gulley 4, Baker 1, Arnold 1, Lee 1, Ruple 1), IHCC 7 (Austin 3, Farr 3, McMillan 1)
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