Ottumwa -- Although it wasn't their most artistic performance of the first half of the season, third-ranked Indian Hills still put 93 points on the scoreboard and maintained their perfect record with a 93-69 victory against Missouri State-West Plains at the Hellyer Center on Tuesday night.
It was the 14th straight win for the Warriors, who were not able to put away the visiting Grizzlies until a late 19-0 run.
Missouri State-West Plains had five players suspended for the game and was forced to deal with the Warriors' full-court style with only seven players.
But the Grizzlies more than held their own with their depleted roster, especially in the first half when they had two six-point leads.
Sophomore guard Kevin Nelson drained four 3s in the opening half in helping MS-WP build leads of 27-21 and 30-24.
After trailing by six, the Warriors caught fire and ran off 10 straight points to take the lead for good. A slam dunk by Dustin Hogue tied the game at 30 and buckets by Brandon Spearman and Jameel McKay finished the run.
Spearman scored 15 of his game-high 21 points in the first half, Hogue netted 16 points and McKay had a dozen points and seven rebounds.
The Warriors took a five-point lead into the locker room at the half and built the advantage to 12 at 57-45. The Grizzlies then made one last push, scoring the next eight points and forcing IHCC coach Barret Peery to use a timeout.
Indian Hills responded by steadily pulling away after that and the late run, which moved the score from 70-63 to 89-63 and finished off the weary Grizzlies.
Gary Ricks, Jr. had back-to-back 3s in the late spurt for IHCC and Roderick Bobbitt, who had 10 assists to go along with 10 points, ended the run with a three of his own.
Four of the seven Grizzlies who played scored at least 15 points, led by Kervin Remeau's 17.
The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for MS-WP, who will get a chance to avenge the defeat when they host Indian Hills on January 17.
The Warriors have two weeks off to prepare for their first game of 2012 -- a home contest against ninth-rated Vincennes (Ind.) on Jan. 3.
INDIAN HILLS 93, MISSOURI STATE-WEST PLAINS 69
INDIAN HILLS Brandon Spearman 10 0-0 21, Gary Ricks, Jr. 3 0-0 9, Michael Haynes 2 2-3 6, D.J. Bennett 2 1-3 5, Kieran Woods 1 0-0 2, Jameel McKay 5 2-2 12, Roderick Bobbitt 4 1-3 10, Dustin Hogue 7 1-2 16, Ronnie Stevens 1 3-4 5, Trinson White 3 0-0 7, Devin Delaney 0 0-0 0, Rawane Ndiaye 0 0-0 0, Gary Ross 0 0-0 0 Team 38 10-17 93
MISSOURI STATE-WEST PLAINS Kevin Nelson 5 1-5 15, Keaton Jackson 2 0-0 4, Nathaniel Simniok 5 5-8 16, Kervin Remeau 7 3-4 17, Jordan Clennon 7 0-3 15, Farbod Farman 0 2-2 2, Asim Beazer 0 0-0 0 Team 26 11-22 69
Halftime score: Indian Hills 44, MS-WP 39; Three-point field goals: IHCC 7 (Ricks 3, Spearman, Bobbitt, Hogue, White 1), MS-WP 6 (Nelson 4, Simniok, Clennon 1)
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