Quincy, Illinois -- Indian Hills put together a strong 40 minutes of basketball to pull off a Saturday afternoon road win at John Wood CC, beating the Blazers, 73-50. It was the best performance of the early-season for the No. 6-rated Warriors, who held John Wood to 33 percent shooting and 41 fewer points than they had scored the previous night when they demolished Johnson County.
The Warriors (4-0) had two big runs -- one in each half -- to push their winning streak to four. IHCC was behind 9-5 before outscoring John Wood, 24-3, to seize control of the game. The Blazers (2-2) were only down eight in the second half until the Warriors went on a 15-0 spurt to open up a 68-45 bulge.
Indian Hills coach Hank Plona described it as a great win for his squad, saying his players respected John Wood and what they've done in the early part of the season, knowing it would take a far better effort than IHCC had put forth in the first three games. "It was great to see how good we can be when we play hard, play smart, and play together," Plona said.
Shane Gatling came off the IHCC bench and hit two big threes and another jumper as part of the 24-3 run.
The inside duo of Ivan Aurrecoechea and Rob Montgomery combined for 29 points and 16 rebounds as the Warriors outrebounded John Wood, 48-27. Indian Hills committed only four turnovers and frustrated the Blazers with a suffocating defense that was a key, according to Plona. "I thought our inside guys really gave them problems," he said. "Ivan, Rob and James (Jean-Marie) all were a force on the glass and with their scoring. They didn't let John Wood have much success around the rim."
Indian Hills was credited with nine steals and four of them came in a span of five JWCC possessions in the second half, when the Warriors were pulling away.
Aurrecoechea led IHCC with 17 points and Montgomery added 12. Mason Schlotzhauer topped all scorers with 21 for John Wood.
The Warriors return home to play a pair of Oklahoma teams next weekend -- Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa on Friday night and Northeastern Oklahoma A&M Saturday.
INDIAN HILLS 73, JOHN WOOD 50
INDIAN HILLS
Ivan Aurrecoechea 8 1-3 17, Jamel Allen 3 0-0 7, Antonio Williams 4 1-2 9, Tomas Woldetensae 1 2-2 5, Shane Gatling 3 1-2 9, Connor Murrell 0 0-0 0, Devontae Lane 4 1-3 10, Rob Montgomery 5 2-4 12, James Jean-Marie 2 0-0 4, Javier Valeiras 0 0-0 0 Team 30 8-17 73
JOHN WOOD
Mason Schlotzhauer 7 5-7 21, Eric Easter 1 0-2 2, Troy Burrows 0 0-0 0, Carter Cramsey 2 1-1 5, Gentry Whiteman 2 1-2 6, Reed Wolfmeyer 0 0-0 0, Cory Miller Jr. 0 0-0 0, Jonny Dahl 2 0-0 5, Garrett Gadeke 0 0-0 0, Chima Oduocha 0 3-4 3, Aziz Fadika 4 2-5 10 Team 17 12-21 50
Halftime score: Indian Hills 35, John Wood 22; Three-point field goals: IHCC 5 (Gatling 2, Allen 1, Woldetensae 1, Lane 1), JWCC 4 (Schlotzhauer 2, Whiteman 1, Dahl 1)