Sedalia, Missouri -- For the second straight Saturday night, Tyon Grant-Foster took over in the second half and led Indian Hills to a come-from-behind victory. This time it came against State Fair CC in the Iowa-Missouri Challenge with the Warriors winning by a 74-61 margin, a decision that made it a 5-3 win for the Iowa schools in the first-ever Challenge.
Grant-Foster scored 24 of his career-high 33 points in the final 20 minutes and Indian Hills made up a nine-point deficit they faced just over three minutes into the final half. A dunk by Lual Akot with 16:48 to play put State Fair ahead 40-31 and caused an IHCC timeout. From then until the end of the game -- almost 17 minutes -- the Roadrunners made only five field goals. They totaled nine in each half.
Akot built the lead to nine again, 42-33, and that's when Grant-Foster caught fire. First, he was fouled while making a 3-pointer and added the free throw for a four-point play, then he made another three to quickly slice the deficit to two at 42-40. A basket by JD Muila after an offensive rebound gave Indian Hills the lead, 46-45, and the Warriors didn't trail again. A while later, Grant-Foster reeled off 10 straight points in one stretch, getting a steal and stuff, two foul shots and then back-to-back threes. He put the exlamation mark on his night with a layup and a three-point play.
Grant-Foster netted 22 of his 24 points in the final half a week before when IHCC came from nine down in the second half to knock off John A. Logan. The sophomore buried a career-high five 3-pointers against SFCC. He was helped by Chris Childs, who scored 12 points.
State Fair had a 20-point game from Kailleb Walton-Blanden and 19 points from Akot. The Roadrunners shot only 30 percent and made just 2-of-14 3-point tries.
The two teams will meet again, on Nov. 29, in Moberly as part of a weekend tourney.
The Warriors return home for a pair of games next weekend. They'll match up with Northeastern Oklahoma A&M Friday night and Coffeyville (Kans.) the next evening in the Financial Partners Classic. Both weekend foes played in the NJCAA national tournament last March.
INDIAN HILLS 74, STATE FAIR 61
INDIAN HILLS
Chris Payton 3 0-1 6, Maurice Calloo 1 2-3 4, Tyrese Nickelson 2 2-2 6, Loseni Kamara 0 0-0 0, Chris Childs 2 6-6 12, Malique Jacobs 1 2-2 4, Tyon Grant-Foster 11 6-9 33, Drake Jeffries 1 0-0 2, JD Muila 2 1-3 5, Dedoch Chan 0 0-0 0, Ben Lyon 0 2-2 2 Team 23 21-28 74
STATE FAIR
Kailleb Walton-Blanden 5 10-13 20, Demaria Franklin 2 2-2 6, Kohen Thompson 0 2-2 2, Nate McClure 0 0-0 0, John Egbuta 0 0-0 0, Malcolm Townsel 1 0-0 2, Lual Akot 6 5-5 19, Sarion McGee 2 4-4 8, Dmitri Georgiadis 2 0-1 4 Team 18 23-27 61
Halftime score: State Fair 31, Indian Hills 29; Three-point field goals: IHCC 7 (Grant-Foster 5, Childs 2), SFCC 2 (Akot 2)