Warriors Grab Region 11 Title

Council Bluffs, IA -- The Indian Hills Warriors picked up a Region 11 postseason championship to go along with their regular-season region title on Wednesday night when the ninth-ranked Warriors pulled away at the end to knock off Iowa Western, 87-70, and sweep the best-of-three Region 11 series with the Reivers.

For the season, the Warriors won all four matchups with Iowa Western and left little doubt as to their supremacy in the region. They were the only team to defeat Iowa Western on its home floor, beating them in both the regular season and postseason.

The pivotal moment in Wednesday's game came with under seven minutes to play in the second half. Iowa Western had stormed back after trailing by as many as 16 points in the second half to cut the deficit to two at 68-66.

Devin Brooks' 3-pointer got the home team to within two and, after a stop, the Reivers' Alonzo Traylor missed a chance to tie the score when he couldn't hit a shot from right in front of the rim.

IHCC got the rebound and Roderick Bobbitt found Gary Ricks, Jr. in the corner and Ricks buried a three while being fouled. He added the free throw for a huge four-point play. On the next Warrior possession Ricks curled in another three to make it 75-66 and the Reivers didn't get closer than six points after that.

Indian Hills scored the last ten points to make the final margin a little deceiving, but there was nothing deceiving about the Warriors' 19-4 run over the final 6:07.

The Warriors got a big night from sophomore center D.J. Bennett. He had 14 points in the first half and 18 for the game, to go along with 12 rebounds and four blocked shots.

Indian Hills got a big night from another sophomore, Brandon Spearman, who drilled three 3s in the second half when he scored 11 of his 13 points.

Ricks had 17 points and in addition to his heroics in the second half, the other holdover from last year's IHCC team -- along with Bennett -- he capped a 15-0 run to end the first half with a buzzer-beating floater from the lane.

Iowa Western outscored the Warriors 14-2 to take a 34-30 lead. Ricks provided IHCC with a spark with a 3-pointer to cut the lead to one and that started Indian Hills' run of 15 straight points.

Bennett had four points in that span and Jameel McKay and Bobbitt each had a three-point play.

The game was tight early with five ties and nine lead changes. Iowa Western rallied behind the play of Antonio Levy who had eight of the points in the 14-2 run.

Levy had 15 points. Xavier Munford led Iowa Western with 24, 20 of them in the second half. He had three straight baskets as the Reivers came back after trailing 55-39 with 14:47 to play.

Brooks twice brought IWCC to within two, but the Warriors helf off the Reivers to win their 29th game of the season and a spot in next Tuesday's District 11 title game against North Dakota State College of Science, the 11th-ranked team in the latest NJCAA poll.

NDSCS earned the spot opposite the Warriors with a 100-92 win over Williston (ND) State in overtime on Wednesday night.

INDIAN HILLS 87, IOWA WESTERN 70

INDIAN HILLS Brandon Spearman 5 0-0 13, Gary Ricks, Jr. 5 3-3 17, Michael Haynes 2 1-2 5, D.J. Bennett 7 4-6 18, Jameel McKay 5 2-3 12, Roderick Bobbitt 2 3-4 7, Dustin Hogue 3 2-6 8, Ronnie Stevens 1 0-0 2, Trinson White 1 0-0 3, Gary Ross 1 0-0 2 Team 32 15-24 87

IOWA WESTERN Xavier Munford 9 4-6 24, Alonzo Traylor 2 1-2 5, Devin Brooks 4 2-2 12, Kelvin Dixon 3 2-2 8, Antonio Levy 5 3-4 15, Bernard Brame 0 0-0 0, Wil Martinez 0 0-0 0, Tavian Pomlee 2 0-0 4, Brock Lutes 1 0-0 2 Team 26 12-16 70

Halftime score: Indian Hills 45, Iowa Western 34; Three-point field goals: IHCC 8 (Ricks 4, Spearman 3, White 1), IWCC 6 (Levy, Munford, Brooks 2)