Warriors Hand Iowa Western Its First Loss

Ottumwa -- In a battle of two teams ranked in the top-ten in the nation, No. 10 Indian Hills knocked third-rated Iowa Western from the ranks of the unbeaten as the Warriors ran their home court winning streak to 32 with a 79-64 win over the Reivers at the Hellyer Center Saturday night.

Iowa Western came into the game with a school-record 20-game winning streak, but was held 21 points below its season scoring average in losing for the sixth consecutive time to Indian Hills.

The Warriors outscored the visitors, 40-30, in the second half and held Iowa Western to just 28-percent shooting from the floor over the final 20 minutes in winning its fifth straight game and 19th in 21 games on the season.

Iowa Western made only four-of-29 three-point attempts and was outrebounded by IHCC, 57-44.

Indian Hills jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead, but the Reivers, who were scoreless for the first 3 1/2 minutes, recovered to take their own seven-point lead at 21-14. 

With Iowa Western ahead 29-24 with around five minutes to go in the half, Indian Hills started a run that would put them ahead for good.  Ronald Ross had consecutive baskets, the second after a backcourt steal and layup, and Jelan Kendrick followed with a go-ahead bucket.  When Jameel McKay, who led all scorers with 21 points, finished a fast break with a dunk, the Warriors were on top 32-29 and they never trailed again.

The two teams had only one 3-pointer each in the first 19 minutes of play until IHCC's Frank Williams drained back-to-back 3s and Devin Brooks hit one for Iowa Western just before the first-half buzzer to make it 39-34 at intermission.

Iowa Western got to within three points in the second half at 43-40 and still trailed by only four at 53-49 before IHCC used another 8-0 spurt to gain control.

Rawane Ndiaye made a nice move for a reverse layup, his only points of the game to start the run with Williams, McKay and Ross all adding field goals for the Warriors' first double-digit lead of the game with just over nine minutes remaining.

The lead eventually grew to 17 in the final minutes as the Warriors picked up the victory, despite their second-lowest point total of the season.

McKay added 11 rebonds to go along with his game-high 21 points; Ross had 18 and Kendrick 17 for IHCC.  Brooks topped IWCC with 16 and Tavian Pomlee scored 14.

Indian Hills, alone in the conference lead at 2-0, will host Southeastern CC on Wednesday night and then travel to Marshalltown CC on Saturday.

INDIAN HILLS 79, IOWA WESTERN 64

INDIAN HILLS

Jameel McKay 9 3-8 21, Richard Amardi 2 1-2 5, Dustin Hogue 2 4-6 8, Ronald Ross 7 2-3 18, Jelan Kendrick 7 2-6 17, Frank Williams 3 0-0 8, Gary Williams, Jr. 0 0-0 0, Majok Deng 0 0-0 0, Rawane Ndiaye 1 0-0 2  Team 31 12-25 79

IOWA WESTERN

Devin Brooks 7 1-2 16, Dinjihl Walker 5 1-2 12, Tavian Pomlee 5 3-4 14, Ryan Bowie 2 0-0 5, Josiah Coleman 0 3-4 3, Michael Hudson 5 2-2 12, Tyrone Haughton 1 0-2 2, Kashief Thomas 0 0-0 0, Aaron Schmid 0 0-0 0  Team 25 10-16 64

Halftime score: Indian Hills 39, Iowa Western 34; Three-point field goals: IHCC 5 (Ross, F. Williams 2; Kendrick 1), IWCC 4 (Brooks, Walker, Pomlee, Bowie 1)