Warriors Notch Wire-to-Wire Win

Hutchinson, Kan. -- Indian Hills assured itself of a top-8 finish in the 2012 NJCAA Division I Basketball Championship with a 92-82 win against Southern Idaho in the consolation round of the tourney on Friday.

The Warriors never trailed in advancing to play Wabash Valley (Ill) in the 7th-place game on Saturday.

A couple of huge second-half runs allowed Indian Hills to open up a 31-point lead in the second half. But the Warriors seemingly couldn't stand prosperity and allowed the Golden Eagles to cut the deficit to six at 86-80 with just over a minute to play.

Roderick Bobbitt, who had a season-high 19 points, made a pair of free throws with 57.4 seconds on the clock to give IHCC a little more breathing room and the Warriors closed out CSI with four more free throws.

In a game in which both teams were playing to get one more game in the tourney, Indian Hills jumped out to a quick 14-2 lead. Southern Idaho didn't score their first field goal until 5:20 had been played.

The Warriors took a ten-point halftime lead which ballooned to 73-42 in the first eight minutes of the second half. CSI, which entered the game with the same 31-4 record as Indian Hills, used a 21-5 run to get back in the game.

The Golden Eagles, the defending national champs, kept chipping away at the lead, but couldn't get closer than the late six-point deficit.

The Warriors won despite committing 27 turnovers and making only 54% of their 35 free throw attempts. They forced 31 CSI turnovers and IHCC was credited with 23 steals.

After Bobbitt's season-best 19 points, Jameel McKay scored 18 for Indian Hills. McKay led IHCC to a 43-31 rebounding advantage with 10 boards. It was the third straight tournament game in which McKay had double-digit points and rebounds totals.

INDIAN HILLS 92, SOUTHERN IDAHO 82

INDIAN HILLS Brandon Spearman 2 0-1 4, Gary Ricks, Jr. 5 0-0 14, DeAndray Buckley 2 5-8 9, D.J. Bennett 3 0-0 6, Kieran Woods 1 0-0 2, Jameel McKay 6 2-6 14, Roderick Bobbitt 4 10-13 19, Dustin Hogue 8 2-6 18, Ronnie Stevens 3 0-1 6, Trinson White 0 0-0 0, Rawane Ndiaye 0 0-0 0, Gary Ross 0 0-0 0 Team 34 19-35 92

SOUTHERN IDAHO Pat Swilling 4 6-9 16, Fabyon Harris 6 2-3 16, Rafriel Guthrie 1 4-8 6, Sebastien Michineau 0 6-8 6, Gerson Santo 4 3-4 11, Kevin Attila 1 0-0 3, Paul Egwuonwu 2 1-2 5, Luke Cothron 6 7-14 19 Team 24 29-46 82

Halftime score: Indian Hills 45, Southern Idaho 35; Three-point field goals: IHCC 5 (Ricks 4, Bobbitt 1), CSI 5 (Swilling, Harris 2; Attila 1)