In Battle of Rateds, Warriors Prevail

Park Hills, Mo. -- A second-half scoring barrage by sophomore guard Brandon Spearman helped propel Indian Hills to an 89-82 victory against Three Rivers CC in the opening game of the Bob Sechrest Memorial Classic on Friday.

Indian Hills, ranked 4th in the first regular-season NJCAA poll earlier in the week, defeated No. 19 Three Rivers for the first time in three trips to this tournament. And the Warriors scored 32 more points than they did against the Raiders in last year's matchup and 42 more than they managed against TRCC the year before that.

Michael Haynes scored on a three-point play in the second half to give the Warriors a 57-53 lead. After that, Spearman took over. He scored on a driving layup to build the lead to five. A couple minutes later, with the Warriors leading by two, Spearman hit his first of four three-pointers in the second half.

By the time he was done with his long-range shooting, Indian Hills was up by double-digits -- they eventually led by 12 -- and on the way to their 7th win in a row to start the season.

Spearman tallied a game-high 22 points, also a season-high, and got help from Haynes, who had 13, and Gary Ricks, Jr. and Kieran Woods with 11 each.

Indian Hills led for much of the first half, their largest lead at 35-21 after a 10-0 run. Three Rivers pulled to within two points, 43-41, at intermission.

The Raiders had two brief leads in the second half, the last at 53-52, before IHCC scored seven straight points and never trailed again.

Three Rivers cut a 12-point deficit in half with two minutes remaining, but didn't get any closer. The Warriors preserved the victory by making nine of 12 free throws down the stretch.

Indian Hills will try to make it a sweep against Region 16 foes in the tourney when they battle host school Mineral Area on Saturday night.

INDIAN HILLS 89, THREE RIVERS 82

INDIAN HILLS Brandon Spearman 8 1-4 22, Gary Ricks, Jr. 3 3-6 11, DeAndray Buckley 1 4-4 6, Michael Haynes 5 3-4 13, D.J. Bennett 2 0-0 4, Kieran Woods 2 7-11 11, Dustin Hogue 2 1-2 5, Ronnie Stevens 2 2-4 6, Trinson White 1 0-0 3, Roderick Bobbitt 1 6-8 8 Team 27 27-43 89

THREE RIVERS Ibrahim Djambo 6 6-7 19, Gerry Smith 3 3-4 9, Rudy Harrell 3 2-4 8, Tarius Johnson 7 3-5 18, Elgin Lee 7 1-2 15, Jordan McGowan 1 0-1 3, Ignas Palaima 1 0-1 2, Donnell Minnis 4 0-1 8, Bobby Peebles 0 0-0 0, Will Hollifield 0 0-0 0 Team 32 15-25 82

Halftime score: Indian Hills 43, Three Rivers 41; Three-point field goals: IHCC 8 (Spearman 5, Ricks 2, White 1), TRCC 3 (Djambo, Johnson, McGowan 1)