Ottumwa -- On an Indian Hills team averaging over 92 points a game, the defense has often been overlooked on the way to a 21-0 start to the season. Saturday night at the Hellyer Center, however, the Warriors' D stood out in an 84-56 rout of Marshalltown CC. Indian Hills held the Tigers 24 points under their season scoring average, allowed them to make only 6-of-32 3-pointers and shoot only 34 percent from the floor in the second straight league victory for the No. 2-rated Warriors.
Trailing early 5-2, IHCC rattled off seven points in a row to grab a lead they would never give up. After MCC (12-8, 0-3) pulled to within 12-11, the Warriors got three consecutive buckets in the paint, two by James Jean-Marie and one by Ivan Aurrecoechea and didn't look back in beating Marshalltown for the 23rd time in the last 24 meetings.
Those six quick points were part of IHCC's domination inside with the Warriors (21-0, 2-0) enjoying a huge advantage on points in the paint. It was the big guys -- Aurrecoechea, Jean-Marie and Corey Manigault -- who played a big part in a 48-30 halftime lead; in the second half Indian Hills was able to break down the MCC defense with drives to the hoop. Antonio "Booman" Williams was especially successful in getting to the rim. He had four layups after halftime and his 18 points led all scorers.
Tomas Woldetensae chipped in 14 points, Manigault 13 and Aurrecoechea 10 for IHCC. Aurrecoechea's 14 rebounds produced his 11th double-double for the season.
Bassirou Ndiaye led the MCC scoring with 15 and Mohamed Thiam added 11. Thiam, the Tigers' leading scorer and a focal point of the Indian Hills defensive effort, made only 5-of-19 shots, 1-of-8 threes.
Marshalltown got a 3-pointer from Kelton Edwards to end the first half, then had back-to-back field goals to begin the final half to cut the IHCC lead to 13. But the Tigers never got closer, the Warriors responding with a quick 10-0 burst to push the score to 58-35.
Indian Hills will put its season-opening 21-game win streak -- the longest since the 2006-07 team began the year with 31 wins without a loss -- on the line Wednesday night in a road test at Northeast (Neb.). It ties the best in-season victory streak since the 2008-09 squad that featured Hall of Famers Dwight Buycks and Dwight Hardy reeled off 29 straight. In Hank Plona's first season -- two years ago -- there was also a 21-game stretch without a loss.
After Wednesday, the Warriors are home to face Iowa Western on Saturday night. IHCC and IWCC are tied for first in the conference with 2-0 marks.
INDIAN HILLS 84, MARSHALLTOWN 56
INDIAN HILLS
Ivan Aurrecoechea 5 0-0 10, Jamel Allen 1 1-2 3, Antonio Williams 7 4-5 18, Tomas Woldetensae 5 2-2 14, Shane Gatling 2 2-2 6, Connor Murrell 2 0-0 5, Devontae Lane 0 0-0 0, Corey Manigault 4 5-6 13, Rob Montgomery 2 2-2 6, James Jean-Marie 3 0-1 6, Javier Valeiras 1 0-0 3 Team 31 16-20 84
MARSHALLTOWN
Mohamed Thiam 5 0-0 11, Oscar Kao 1 2-2 5, Kelton Edwards 4 0-0 10, Bassirou Ndiaye 6 3-4 15, Javarcus Word 1 0-0 3, Berk Karadan 2 0-0 4, Goran Vidovic 3 1-1 8, J.J. Foster 0 0-0 0, Eric Ting 0 0-0 0, Edvin Tedesio 0 0-0 0 Team 22 6-7 56
Halftime score: Indian Hills 48, Marshalltown 30; Three-point field goals: IHCC 4 (Woldetensae 2, Murrell 1, Valeiras 1), MCC 6 (Edwards 2, Thiam 1, Kao 1, Word 1, Vidovic 1)