Ottumwa -- Frequently, it's a matter of surviving and moving on in postseason basketball. That's what Indian Hills was able to do on Thursday. The second-seeded Warriors came from 11 points down in the second half to rally and defeat third-seeded Iowa Western, 66-63, at the Hellyer Center.
The win sets up a matchup between Indian Hills (23-8) and Southeastern (24-7) in the region's championship series, the third year in a row that IHCC and SCC will collide in the best-of-three title series.
Southeastern had an easier time in their first-round game, pummeling Marshalltown, 91-67.
It looked for quite a while Thursday like Iowa Western (14-17)would spring an upset over Indian Hills. The Reivers had lost the regular-season game at IHCC by 23 points.
But, outside of a brief one-point lead by Indian Hills early in the game, Iowa Western was in control for about the first 30 minutes of action.
When the Reiver's Jordan Weaver scored the final two of seven points in a row for IWCC, the visitors had a 41-30 lead, their largest of the game.
The Warriors and their fans were getting anxious, but Indian Hills finally got a spark that settled some of that anxiety.
Jerome Jones and Stephen Coles hit back-to-back baskets for the Warriors and then Dijon Farr went to work. Farr, who had 15 points, scored three straight buckets. The second came after he stole the ball and drove the length of the floor for a layup.
He then scored again on a baseline out-of-bounds lob pass from Gary Ricks, Jr. that sliced the Iowa Western lead to 41-40.
But Iowa Western refused to give up the lead until Jones and Ricks buried consecutive 3s to put IHCC on top 53-50.
The Warriors never trailed again although the Reivers got to within one point once, and to within two at 65-63 after Jeremy Robinson hit a three-pointer with 14 seconds to play.
Farr was fouled with 8.9 seconds on the clock and made one of two free throws to put the IHCC advantage at three. Robinson's three-point attempt just before the buzzer was off the mark.
Robinson made a 3 at the end of the first half to give Iowa Western a 29-25 lead at halftime. He led the Reivers with 22 points.
Iowa Western had a seven-point lead in the first half at 23-16 after a three-point play by Alonzo Traylor.
Four of the Warriors' first five field goals were three-pointers and it took them nearly 14 minutes to make those five shots. They wound up the game with 10 3's.
IHCC committed 11 turnovers in the opening half and didn't have a free-throw attempt.
They did a better job of taking care of the basketball in the second half with just three turnovers and made 8-of-10 2nd half free throws.
Indian Hills and Southeastern split a pair of games in the regular season. Both won at home, SCC by a 64-58 score and IHCC by 65-64.
INDIAN HILLS 66, IOWA WESTERN 63
INDIAN HILLS Stephen Coles 3 2-2 8, Jerome Jones 8 3-3 21, Dijon Farr 6 1-2 15, Riley Stuve 3 0-0 8, Chad Dillard 1 2-3 5, Gary Ricks 3 0-0 9, Latroy Taylor 0 0-0 0, D.J. Bennett 0 0-0 0 Team 24 8-10 66
IOWA WESTERN Jeremy Robinson 8 4-9 22, Alonzo Traylor 6 1-3 13, Kelvin Dixon 3 1-1 7, Montez Blair 3 0-0 6, J.C. Guzman 2 0-0 6, Tyrone Black 0 0-0 0, Tim McDavid 0 0-0 0, Zaahir Smith 0 0-0 0, Jordan Weaver 4 1-1 9 Team 26 7-14 63
Halftime score: Iowa Western 29, Indian Hills 25; Three-point field goals: IHCC 10 (Ricks 3, Jones 2, Farr 2, Stuve 2, Dillard 1), IWCC 4 (Robinson 2, Guzman 2)
Posts
