Wire-to-Wire Win For Warriors

Scottsbluff, Neb. -- Plagued by slow starts in recent games on the road, the Indian Hills Warriors fashioned an early 10-0 run into a 78-67 win over Western Nebraska on the Cougars' home court on Saturday night in the final game of WNCC Thanksgiving Classic.

The closest that the Cougars got after spotting IHCC the early 10-point lead was five points on two occasions, one in each half. Western Nebraska scored the final four points of the first half to get to within 39-30 at intermission, then tallied the first four points of the second half to pull to within five.

Jerome Jones hit a three for the Warriors to help them regain some momentum and Jones followed with back-to-back field goals to push the lead back to nine and the Warriors were never in trouble after that.

Jones' three was one of 11 on the night for Indian Hills. Gary Ricks, who had only seven points in the previous two games in the tournament, poured in 20 to lead the Warriors. He had five 3's.

The Warriors' lead ballooned to a game-high 19 points after a Chad Dillard three-pointer.

By the time IHCC made their 11th three-pointer, Western Nebraska still hadn't made a shot from behind the arc. The Cougars wound up with three.

Indian Hills made 54.5% of their shots, and exactly half of their three-point attempts.

Dillard had 12 points to go along with a team-high eight rebounds.

After playing its last six games on the road, the Warriors, now 10-2, will host Milwaukee Area Tech next Friday night at the Hellyer Center.

INDIAN HILLS 78, WESTERN NEBRASKA 67

INDIAN HILLS Stephen Coles 3 2-3 8, Jerome Jones 6 2-2 15, Dijon Farr 3 2-2 8, Kelvyn Valdez 0 0-2 0, Trey Starks 0 2-2 2, Bruno Ferreira 1 3-4 5, Riley Stuve 0 2-2 2, Chad Dillard 3 3-6 12, Gary Ricks 6 3-5 20, Latroy Taylor 2 0-0 4, Giovanni Smith 0 0-0 0, D.J. Bennett 0 0-0 0 Team 24 19-28 78

WESTERN NEBRASKA Mike Peltz 1 4 -6 6, Justin Standley 5 2-2 14, Hauns Brereton 4 4-5 12, Marko Kovacevic 4 0-2 8, Justin Omugun 3 2-4 8, Joe Stock 2 0-0 5, Aamir Kelliehan 2 0-0 4, Aaron Turner 4 0-0 8, Brady Mason 0 0-0 0, Stephen Shepherd 1 0-0 2 Team 26 12-19 67

Halftime score: Indian Hills 39, Western Nebraska 30; Three-point field goals: IHCC 11 (Ricks 5, Dillard 3, Farr 2, Jones 1), WNCC 3 (Standley 2, Stock 1)