Moberly, Missouri -- Indian Hills took a nine-point halftime lead, still led by 12 with around five minutes to play, then poured in 25 points over the last five-minute stretch and polished off State Fair CC, 77-48, at the Moberly (Mo.) Classic on Friday.
The Warriors ended the game by outscoring State Fair, 25-8, to snap a two-game losing streak and win their 8th straight game against the Roadrunners and their second this month. They had defeated SFCC on their homecourt in the Iowa-Missouri Challenge earlier in November.
Tyon Grant-Foster, Chris Childs and Chris Payton all came to life late for IHCC. Grant-Foster, who had a season-high 33-point effort against State Fair in the first meeting, had all but two of his team-best 17 points in the second half of this contest. Childs, the Warriors' 3-point leader, hit one in the first half and four more in the second for 15 points. Payton wound up with a career-high 16 points with 10 of them coming in the final period.
Indian Hills trailed 17-16 before running off eight straight points to take control. They were never behind again after Tyrese Nickelson hit the go-ahead bucket. Payton followed with a hoop and became the 8th different player with a field goal in IHCC's first 20 points. Payton scored inside again and Drake Jeffries cashed in a fastbreak layup for a 24-17 advantage with 2:56 to go in the half.
State Fair's Kailleb Walton-Blanden, who led the Roadrunners with 20 points the first time the teams played but had only two field goals in this one, started the second-half with a three to make it a four-point game, but State Fair never got closer than that as the Warriors outscored them 49-27 over the final 20 minutes.
Malique Jacobs provided one of the defensive highlights for the Warriors when the sophomore guard blocked two shots in the final seconds of the first half. Jacobs knocked a 3-point try out of bounds with 1.7 seconds on the clock, then did the same thing on another attempt at the buzzer.
IHCC nailed 11 3-pointers, seven in the second half. They shot only nine free throws, the third game in a row with fewer than 10 FT attempts.
Malcolm Townsel led SFCC with 12 points and Demaria Franklin was the only other Roadrunner to hit double figures with 10.
Indian Hills continued its domination of State Fair, winning for the 8th straight time and the 31st in the last 32 contests.
The Warriors go for a sweep on their Moberly trip when they play the host team Saturday night at 7:00.
INDIAN HILLS 77, STATE FAIR 48
INDIAN HILLS
Chris Payton 8 0-3 16, Maurice Calloo 1 2-2 5, Tyrese Nickelson 3 0-0 8, Loseni Kamara 1 0-0 3, Chris Childs 5 0-0 15, Malique Jacobs 2 1-1 6, Tyon Grant-Foster 8 1-3 17, Drake Jeffries 2 0-0 5, JD Muila 1 0-0 2, Theo Bourgeois 0 0-0 0 Team 32 4-9 77
STATE FAIR
Kailleb Walton-Blanden 2 0-0 5, Demaria Franklin 5 0-0 10, Malcolm Townsel 4 4-6 12, Lual Akot 2 0-0 4, Dmitri Georgiadis 1 0-2 2, Nate McClure 1 1-2 3, John Egbuta 2 0-2 5, Sarion McGee 2 2-2 6, Kohen Thompson 0 1-2 1 Team 19 8-16 48
Halftime score: Indian Hills 28, State Fair 21; Three-point field goals: IHCC 11 (Childs 5, Nickelson 2, Calloo 1, Kamara 1, Jacobs 1, Jeffries 1), SFCC 2 (Walton-Blanden 1, Egbuta 1)