Second-Half Surge Dumps Kennedy-King

Ottumwa -- Indian Hills broke away from a one-point halftime lead by scoring the first 11 points of the second half and the Warriors notched their 19th straight win on Saturday, downing Kennedy-King, 95-72.

The win by the second-ranked Warriors, coupled with an overtime loss by top-ranked Northwest Florida State on Saturday night, puts Indian Hills in a position to take over the top spot in the national poll. However, the new poll won't come out until Wednesday and the Warriors have a key game at Missouri State-West Plains on Tuesday night. So they'll first have to get past the Grizzlies before ascending to the No. 1 ranking.

Against Kennedy-King, Indian Hills recovered from a sluggish start to take a 33-20 lead in the first half. The Statesmen charged back with a 13-2 run to end the first half and went to the lockerroom down by a single point, 34-33.

One Friday night against Olive-Harvey, the Warriors seemed to have taken care of the turnover problems which had plagued them in recent games, committing only 14 turnovers in an easy victory.

But the turnover bug came back to bite the Warriors in the first half against Kennedy-King with many of their 18 first-half mistakes contributing to Statesmen points.

The Warriors came out to start the second half and immediately jumped on the visitors. Michael Haynes fed Jameel McKay for a layup, then Haynes scored on a hook shot for four quick points.

Roderick Bobbitt hit a running bank shot, McKay -- who had his second straight 23-point night -- scored inside again, and Gary Ricks, Jr. finished the 11-point barrage with a three-pointer and the Warriors never led by fewer than 11 points the rest of the night.

IHCC was much-improved from the free throw line with a season-best percentage of .806 on 29-of-36 shooting. They were 19-of-23 from the foul line in the second half as they pulled away from Kennedy-King.

The Warriors now face three consecutive road games, starting with the trip to West Plains. They open conference play with back-to-back contests away from home -- at Marshalltown CC on Jan. 21 and at Iowa Western CC on Jan. 28.

INDIAN HILLS 95, KENNEDY-KING 72

INDIAN HILLS Brandon Spearman 3 4-5 11, Gary Ricks, Jr. 2 0-0 6, DeAndray Buckley 1 2-4 4, Michael Haynes 3 2-2 8, D.J. Bennett 2 2-2 6, Kieran Woods 1 0-0 2, Jameel McKay 8 7-8 23, Roderick Bobbitt 4 1-2 10, Dustin Hogue 3 3-4 9, Ronnie Stevens 2 2-2 6, Trinson White 1 1-2 3, Rawane Ndiaye 1 1-1 3, Gary Ross 0 4-4 4 Team 31 29-36 95

KENNEDY-KING Brandon Caruthers 5 3-5 13, Demarko Nash 2 2-4 6, Jamal Dantzler 4 0-0 10, Tony Pierce 5 0-0 15, Devonn Gavin 5 2-3 14, Terron Farrell 4 0-0 9, Terrell Griffin 0 0-1 0, Marcus Deloney 2 0-0 5, Anthony Parker 0 0-0 0 Team 27 8-16 72

Halftime score: Indian Hills 34, Kennedy-King 33; Three-point field goals: IHCC 4 (Ricks 2; Spearman, Bobbitt 1), KKC 10 (Pierce 5; Gavin 2; Dantzler, Farrell, Deloney 1)