Marshalltown, Iowa -- Indian Hills suffered through a cold-shooting first half, then erupted for 62 second-half points and pulled away from Marshalltown CC to post a 91-71 conference victory at the Student Activity Center on Wednesday night. After making only 31 percent of their field-goal attempts in the opening 20 minutes, the Warriors missed only 11 shots after halftime (they made 26-of-37 attempts) and tallied 30 points over the final 10 minutes to put away the Tigers and claim their 14th win in a row against MCC.
The lead changed hands 12 times and there were eight ties, the last at 47-all before Indian Hills rattled off eight straight points, the first four on consecutive buckets by Tomas Woldetensae -- just the second and third field goals of the night for IHCC's leading scorer. Iziah James followed with a short jump shot and Torrey Patton, who topped Indian Hills with 22 points, took a nice feed from Devontae Lane to complete the 8-0 spurt.
Goran Vidovic hit two foul shots to bring Marshalltown to within five points, but the Warriors decided the contest with a 13-2 burst that included field goals from Lane, Woldetensae, James and Tyler Chisom, all of whom wound up in double figures.
IHCC's offense was especially aggressive in the second half contributing to their 70 percent field goal mark in the final period and their 60 points in the paint. They made a season-low three 3-pointers and only attempted 13 shots from behind the arc, just four in the second half.
Nick Fleming's jumper just before the buzzer allowed Marshalltown to gain a 30-29 lead at intermission. The Warriors led by seven early before the Tigers fought back, taking their first lead on a three by Myles Broadie, his first of the season. Patton had 10 points by halftime, but nobody else from Indian Hills had more than five.
Patton grabbed 10 rebounds to go along with his game-high 22 points -- the third double-double in the last five games for the 6'4" sophomore.
Lane, whose high game as a freshman was 17 points at Marshalltown, matched that total on his second trip to MCC. He was 6-for-8 from the floor in the last half. Woldetensae had 13 points, Tyon Grant-Foster 11 and Chisom 10 for an Indian Hills team that improved to 16-4 overall and 2-0 in the conference. The victory was their 20th straight against conference opponents, including the postseason.
The Warriors step out of the conference on Saturday night when they battle John Wood CC at the Hellyer Center. The next league action will be against Southeastern at home on Jan. 23.
INDIAN HILLS 91, MARSHALLTOWN 71
INDIAN HILLS (16-4, 2-0)
Devontae Lane 8 1-2 17, Iziah James 3 0-0 6, Nick Wagner 3 1-1 8, Tyon Grant-Foster 3 4-7 11, Tomas Woldetensae 5 2-2 13, Josh Nicholas 0 0-2 0, JD Muila 1 0-0 2, Anthony Bratton 0 0-0 0, Tyler Chisom 2 6-8 10, Torrey Patton 11 0-0 22 Team 37 14-22 91
MARSHALLTOWN (11-9, 0-1)
Kelton Edwards 4 3-4 11, Goran Vidovic 2 5-5 10, Juan Coffi 4 1-4 9, Nick Fleming 6 0-1 14, Eduardo Lane 1 0-1 2, JJ Foster 2 2-4 8, Bassirou Ndiaye 4 2-3 10, Palmi Thorsson 1 0-0 3, Myles Broadie 1 0-0 3 Team 25 14-22 71
Halftime score: Marshalltown 30, Indian Hills 29; Three-point field goals: IHCC 3 (Wagner 1, Grant-Foster 1, Woldetensae 1), MCC 7 (Fleming 2, Foster 2, Vidovic 1, Thorsson 1, Broadie 1)