Warriors Hang on to Knock Off State Fair

Ottumwa -- On a night when there were 22 three-pointers made by the two teams, it was a missed three-point try that allowed Indian Hills to escape with an 85-82 win against State Fair on Wednesday night in the Warriors' final regular-season home game.

Antonin Galaya of State Fair had made eight 3s in the game, but his attempt from behind the arc that would have tied the score with three seconds left was off the mark. IHCC's Roderick Bobbitt secured the rebound and Indian Hills survived some terrible free-throw shooting down the stretch to notch their 26th win of the year.

The Warriors had ample opportunities to put the game away in the second half after taking control with a 14-0 run. But the Roadrunners kept fighting back on the strength of the strong all-around play of sophomore Alfonzo Houston and the long-range shooting of Galaya.

Galaya's 7th three of the game with under two minutes to play cut what was once a double-digit IHCC lead to 83-75. After a made IHCC free throw, a rare occurrence in the final minutes of the game when they missed seven of eight attempts, Houston scored and Galaya nailed another three to make it 85-80.

IHCC missed a shot and Ayo Ojo of State Fair went to the line with 12.9 seconds to play. He missed both free throws, but Houston rebounded the second miss and was fouled while putting the ball in from underneath the goal to make it 85-82 with 10.7 seconds to play.

Houston's foul shot was no good, but again State Fair got the offensive rebound and, still down three points, eventually worked the ball to Galaya whose contested three-point try wouldn't drop.

Each team had 11 3s and it was three in a row in the first half by the Warriors' Bobbit that sparked one of three big IHCC scoring runs in the game.

Bobbitt drilled the trio of 3s to bring Indian Hills back from a 19-15 deficit into a 31-19 lead.

Houston scored four straight points and Galaya made three treys as the Roadrunners responded with 15 points in a row to regain the lead at 34-31.

Brandon Spearman's 3 immediately tied the game for the Warriors and started an 11-1 run at the end of the first half.

A pair of baskets by D.J. Bennett started the second-half scoring and gave IHCC another double-figure lead. State Fair once again answered with a run of their own to go ahead 52-50 on Houston's three-point play.

Jameel McKay tied the game at 52-all for the Warriors, the start of 14 consecutive points that shot IHCC into a 64-52 lead.

The largest lead for Indian Hills came shortly after that, a 13-point advantage with just under 10 minutes to play.

Lucas Kidane -- who scored all of his 15 points in the second half -- along with Houston and Galaya triggered the State Fair comeback that eventually got them a chance to tie the score in the final seconds.

Indian Hills won despite making only 14-of-34 free throws, 13-of-29 in the second half. State Fair didn't help their chances with 7-of-19 free-throw shooting.

Bobbitt had a season-high 18 points to share team scoring honors with McKay. Bobbitt and Michael Haynes had 10 rebounds and McKay nine. Houston had 28 points and Galaya 24 for State Fair, which suffered its seventh loss in a row.

The regular-season finale for the Warriors will be Saturday against Kennedy-King in Chicago at 3 p.m. They don't start postseason play until Mar. 5 in the first game of the best-of-three Region 11 championship series. They will take on the winner of the first-round game between Marshalltown and Iowa Western in the series.

INDIAN HILLS 85, STATE FAIR 82

INDIAN HILLS Brandon Spearman 3 1-3 9, Gary Ricks, Jr. 5 0-1 14, DeAndray Buckley 0 0-0 0, Michael Haynes 3 2-4 8, D.J. Bennett 3 0-0 6, Kieran Woods 1 0-0 3, Jameel McKay 8 2-5 18, Roderick Bobbitt 5 4-14 18, Dustin Hogue 1 2-2 4, Ronnie Stevens 0 1-2 1, Trinson White 1 2-3 4, Gary Ross 0 0-0 0 Team 30 14-34 85

STATE FAIR

Alfonzo HOuston 11 5-12 28, Kenny Chery 4 0-0 8, Ayodele Ojo 2 0-3 4, Antonin Galaya 8 0-0 24, Lucas Kidane 6 1-2 15, D'Angelo Tucker 0 0-0 0, Charles Beard 1 1-2 3, Montrell Watts 0 0-0 0 Team 32 7-19 82

Halftime score: Indian Hills 44, State Fair 38; Three-point field goals: IHCC 11 (Bobbitt, Ricks 4; Spearman 2; Woods 1), SFCC 11 (Galaya 8; Kidane 2; Houston 1)