McKay and Ross Lead Short-Handed Warriors to Victory

Ottumwa -- On a night when 11th-ranked Indian Hills needed someone to step up and fill the void caused by four missing players, a trio of sophomores and an unheralded freshman did just that.

Jameel McKay used his strong inside game to score a career-high 32 points and grad 14 rebounds, Ronald Ross tallied 21 points and dished out 10 assists and Frank Williams chipped in 13 points as Indian Hills picked up a 97-82 win against Mineral Area College in the HyVee Classic on Saturday night.

McKay's previous high was 31 points in a win against Independence a week before.

IHCC's Jelan Kendrick and Ronnie Stevens were already sidelined for the weekend's games with shoulder injuries.  Joining them on the bench Saturday was Trinson White, who was ill and wasn't in uniform, and Richard Amardi, who went down with an injury less than two minutes into the first half and never returned to action.

So the Warriors counted on their sophomores to pull them through and they did.  With some help from freshman Majok Deng, who was pressed into service early and came through with eight points and eight rebounds.

That was more than enough to offset the Mineral Area duo of Shaq Boga and Jay Raulston, who combined for 49 of their team's points.  Boga had 26 and Raulston 23, but nobody else reached double figures for the Cardinals who are now 13-3 with all three of their losses coming to Iowa schools.  They had lost earlier to Iowa Western and Southeastern.

The game was tied four times early, the last at 23-all.  Indian Hills scored five straight points to make it 28-23 and the Warriors never trailed after that.  They got their first double-digit lead at 45-35 on a bucket by Ross late in the first half and Deng ended the half with a putback to give IHCC a 49-38 edge at intermission.

McKay made one of his six second-half field goals to open the scoring after halftime and the lead hovered between 13 and 19 points for most of the second half.

The win was the fourth in a row in the current five-game homestand for the Warriors, who have won 10 consecutive games at home this year and 30 straight over the past two years.

Indian Hills will end the first half of their schedule when they host NIACC on Tuesday night at 7:00.

INDIAN HILLS 97, MINERAL AREA 82

INDIAN HILLS

Jameel McKay 14 4-7 32, Richard Amardi 0 0-0 0, Dustin Hogue 3 3-8 9, Ronald Ross 8 1-3 21, Frank Williams 6 0-1 13, Gary Williams, Jr. 2 2-2 7, Majok Deng 3 0-0 8, Gary Ross 1 0-0 3, Rawane Ndiaye 2 0-0 4  Team 39 10-21 97

MINERAL AREA 

Keenan Clark 0 0-0 0, D'Angelo Tucker 1 4-4 7, Leon Watkins 3 2-4 8, Shaq Boga 11 3-4 26, Jake White 0 2-2 2, Bryce Weibrecht 0 2-4 2, Jay Raulston 10  1-4 23, Mark Nolan 2 2-2 6, Orlando Johnson 4 0-0 8  Team 31 16-24 82

Halftime score: Indian Hills 49, Mineral Area 38; Three-point field goals: IHCC 9 (R. Ross 4; Deng 2; F. Williams, G. Williams, G. Ross 1); MAC 4 (Raulston 2; Tucker, Boga 1)