MASON CITY, IA – No. 9-rated Indian Hills picked up its eighth straight win Saturday as the Warriors took a 90-77 road victory over NIACC to move to 8-1 on the season.
The two teams looked mismatched in their previous meeting back on January 30 in the Hellyer Center, a game the Warriors won easily, 95-67, but IHCC Head Coach Hank Plona knew that this time around, it would be much different.
"I think they are a good team. They are very well coached, and they are playing a lot better than they were three weeks ago when we saw them," Plona said. "DMACC beat them by 25 earlier in the year, and then only beat them by one the second time around. We watched that game as a group, and it was clear that NIACC is certainly figuring some stuff out."
On a day when the Warriors were without the services of post player Gabe Oliveira, IHCC didn't need additional factors working against them, but on several occasions, Plona had to not-so-subtly remind his players that they cannot take their foot off the gas.
"There was definitely a mental block. Our guys remember beating NIACC a couple weeks ago by about 30," Plona said. "Sometimes as a coach you try to will your team through some stuff and some uncomfortable situations."
"Gabe hurt his knee Friday in practice. We'll know more Monday or Tuesday, but part of our problem today was just learning to play without a very important part of our team," Plona added. "Gabe doesn't score a lot, and there's things he does that don't show up on the stat sheet, but he does a lot of things that do affect us winning. If he's out for a week or two, we're going to have to figure out how to play without him. He's a solid force. A solid presence."
In Oliveira's absence, the Warriors had to lean a little more heavily on the talents of Chris Payton, and the preseason All-American responded with his season high of 24 points, many of them coming in the first half when IHCC was struggling to find offensive rhythm.
"Part of Chris' numbers issue is that we've been expecting he and Gabe to play 20 minutes each at that position as hard as they can, and obviously Chris was forced to play a lot more today," Plona said. "He's been working his way back into shape and we know Chris is a guy that can put the ball in the bucket and we wouldn't trade Chris for anybody. He's only going to get better and there's not many like him in junior college."
Payton added 10 boards to collect a double-double for the Warriors, who had five players reach double figures as they eclipsed the 90-point mark for the fifth time in this eight-game win streak. Freshman Taj Anderson added 17 points after having zero points at intermission.
After leading 35-29 at the half, Anderson showed why his coach has consistently said he has the ability to be one of the best shooting guards in the country by draining four 3-pointers. Two of those treys came in back-to-back possessions with 13:40 to go in the contest where the Bronx, New York native converted on rare four-point plays where he was fouled while cashing in from distance.
"Taj definitely has a good feel for the timing of his shot, and sometimes guys are scrambling to get to him over a long distance after trying to help out on a guy like Tye Freeman, and they can't close the gap quickly enough without committing a foul," Plona explained. "Taj had great energy in the second half. He looked like a freshman in the first half, and in the second he looked like one of the better guards in the country."
Anderson's fourth bucket from distance put the Warriors up 66-49, and two free throws from Payton pushed the bulge to 19, the biggest of the game at 68-49 with just over nine minutes remaining. The Anderson-Payton duo paired up on a pretty alley-oop with 8:40 to go to bring the Warrior lead again to 19.
"We had a really good run there to start the second half, the first ten to twelve minutes," Plona added. "Once we got that lead to about twenty, I think there was a tendency for our guys to think that it was over, and once it got to that point, they (NIACC) were very scrappy trying to stay in it… trying to keep it a game late."
The Warriors could never deliver the knock-out punch that they were looking for as NIACC (1-9) got as close as nine at 84-75 after a McKelary Robertson 3-pointer, but a pair from the charity stripe from Tyrese Nickelson and another highlight reel dunk from Freeman pushed it back to 13 and the Warriors would escape with another ICCAC road win.
"It was a strange, kind of sloppy game. Not the smoothest game," Plona said. "I don't think we controlled the pace. I think we were a little uncomfortable out there. It's never easy to get road wins in the league. There's some great coaches and teams get better. NIACC was playing much, much better, and we expected that. We didn't think today would be easy and we're really happy to get the road win."
"This is a short year with just 22 regular-season games. And these games are used to help our players use their Indian Hills experience to better their lives. It's important. I don't care what the score is, we're always going to make sure that we're playing the best basketball we can, and that we learn from what we're doing. We were not comfortable playing our style today, and we hope that experiences like this will help us down the road."
Ismael Cruz put together a solid performance, netting 14 points on 4-of-9 shooting from distance. Freeman added 13 points and five rebounds. Nickelson chipped in 10 points to round out the double-digit scorers, including 7-of-8 from the free throw line.
Robertson had 18 for NIACC, but the Trojans were led by Jaden Horton's 19. Horton came into the contest averaging under three points per game, but was 7-for-12 from the field and 5-of-6 from the free throw line.
The Warriors have a busy week ahead with home games on Tuesday and Thursday against DMACC and Iowa Western, respectively, before making the long drive to Norfolk, Nebraska to face Northeast on Saturday.
"DMACC has two really talented guys in Willie Guy and the big kid (Ryan) Schmitt," Plona said looking ahead. "They are a well-coached, organized team that runs some pretty elaborate offenses, similar stuff to what we run. We'll have a good feel for what they do, but at 7-2, obviously they are off to a great start."
Game time Tuesday from the Hellyer Center is set for 7 p.m.