OTTUMWA, IA – After rolling to six-straight victories, Indian Hills Head Coach Hank Plona felt his players needed a reminder.
That not-so-subtle nudge came at halftime when his No. 11-rated Warriors found themselves trailing visiting Iowa Central by a bucket after leading by 14 earlier in the first stanza.
The second-half correction of mindset led to a 73-point outburst and a 119-87 Warrior victory, their seventh consecutive, keeping IHCC atop the ICCAC standings.
"We had to remind the guys that if you can defend and rebound, you can play on this basketball team," Plona said. "I thought in the first half some guys tried to play by scoring."
That first half saw IHCC get out to a 35-21 lead with 8:27 remaining after three consecutive steals and put backs off of pressure by Tyem Freeman, Tyrese Nickelson and Ismael Cruz. But just when it seemed like the Warriors might pull away, Iowa Central clawed its way back in.
A 27-11 Triton run to end the half put Iowa Central ahead 48-46 heading the lockers, and Plona blamed his team's focus on the intermission deficit.
"I got the impression that starting with me and our staff, that we all probably began to think that when we're winning like we have been, that you start to take the winning for granted, and you lose focus," Plona noted. "That can make us all slip up a little bit, and that certainly happened in the first half."
"Iowa Central is a very, very good offensive team, and I'll give them a lot of credit. We knew that going in. They shot it very well and they certainly took advantage of our full court pressure. They got the ball to the middle of the press and they made nine threes as a team in the first half.
Iowa Central's Jaxon Smith did most of the damage for the Tritons as the freshman canned five treys and had 20 at the half.
"The second half we decided we were going to have to play solid, but aggressive, half-court man-to-man defense," Plona said. "That's the biggest adjustment we made."
As Plona has been preaching all season, his team's defense creates offensive opportunities and the Warriors got back to that philosophy as the second half commenced, and the turnaround was startling.
An 18-3 run to start the half turned into a 25-6 burst, and eventually a glance up at the scoreboard showed the Warriors leading 90-66 with 10 minutes remaining… an incredible 44-18 margin since the halftime discussion.
"I was happy to see that once we got to the second half, no one went to the floor without a commitment to defense," said Plona. "We have to have 100 percent effort, because 99 percent isn't good enough. These teams are too good. There's passionate college basketball players that are talented and work on their games every single day. You can't take your foot off the gas at all, and we for sure did that when we got up by 10 in the first half."
"All-in-all we've been a great defensive team, maybe the best in the country all year, and that first half did not show that. We told the guys at half, the guys that were going to play were the ones committed to playing defense and to their credit, everybody was."
Just as Plona had planned, the man-to-man defense led to break-out opportunities and his Warriors did not let their lead slip this time around.
"I don't know what we shot for a percentage in the second half, but I don't remember the last time we scored 70 points in a half," Plona wondered aloud in the postgame.
The statistics revealed that IHCC blistered the Tritons, shooting 25-of-36 from the field after half, which was just a shade under 70 percent (69.4), on their way to a 73-point half of hoops.
"I thought we were very efficient and we played for each other, with each other, and we responded well to some adversity in the first half," Plona noted.
The Warriors cracked the century mark with 6:52 to play on a Tyrese Nickelson 3-pointer from the wing to put IHCC up 102-74, but it was the defense that led to points in transition as four of Plona's players had double-figures in the second half alone and six finished with ten or more for the contest.
Freshman Tyem Freeman again led the way offensively with 29 points, including an array of highlight reel dunks. Freeman added four boards, four steals and two assists.
"Tyem tests the structural integrity of the building almost on a daily basis," Plona joked. "He's a special athlete, but there's a lot of special athletes out there. It takes a special mind and a special feel for the game to make the right play, and he has a vision and feel for the game that when you combine that with his athleticism, you get a player who I think is playing at an All-American level."
Fellow freshman Taj Anderson added 20 points and sophomore Tyrese Nickelson bounced back with a 17-point effort.
"I don't want to say he's been in a little funk, because they came in 40 and 50 point wins, but Tyrese was 1-for-16 in those two games," Plona said. "He's such a competitor, such a warrior, that when we're up by 30, Tyrese struggles out there. I thought he was harper on when to shoot, when to attack today. He's a guy that consistently comes through for us in important games.
Curtis Jones had another in a string of great floor games as the Minneapolis product netted a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds to go along with six assists and two steals.
Chris Payton's 12 points and 11 from Levar Williams rounded out the double-digit scorers for IHCC.
"No matter who scores, we're going to succeed," Plona added. "But I thought the first five or six minutes of the second half, mostly on the defensive end, Chris Payton's play was outstanding. His energy, his intensity and his will to win is something that carries us."
Smith led Iowa Central with 27 points, followed by Jayden Stephens with 19, PJ Ngambi with 17 and Javonte Keck with 12. After shooting 54.8 percent from the field in the first half, the Tritons were held to 37.1 percent in the second half.
The win moves Indian Hills to 7-1 and kept pace with Wednesday's opponent Marshalltown who owns the same record after a 77-69 win over Iowa Western in Council Bluffs on Saturday. The mid-week matchup of league leaders in Marshalltown will feature two teams riding seven-game win streaks after suffering season-opening losses.
"MCC is a high scoring team as well. Their lone loss was 89-86 to Southeastern," Plona said. "They are smaller in terms of height, but they have big, strong physical guards, and can get to the rim. It'll be a challenge and I'm looking for our guys to build on the intensity we showed in the second half today."
Game time Wednesday is 7 p.m. from the MCC Student Activities Center.