West Burlington, Iowa -- Indian Hills had three players score 20 or more points helping the Warriors open conference play with a resounding 102-79 victory over archrival Southeastern CC on Saturday night at Loren Walker Arena. It was the 20th straight win to start the season for the No. 3 rated Warriors, the third-longest opening streak in school history.
Seven straight points by sophomore Jamel Allen ignited an IHCC run in the first half. Allen wound up with a career-high 24 points, three nights after he was held to just two points in a road win at Missouri State-West Plains. He had four 17-point games already this year before matching his uniform number with his point total against the Blackhawks.
He got plenty of help from teammates Shane Gatling and Antonio "Booman" Williams, who poured in 21 and 20 points, respectively.
Unlike their previous two true road contests -- at Mesa and MS-WP -- Indian Hills (20-0, 1-0) got off to a fast start. They trailed early, 10-2, in the two most recent games away from home. This time, the Warriors jumped on SCC for a quick 12-1 advantage. The Blackhawks, ranked 20th in this week's NJCAA poll, were held without a field goal for the first 5:09.
SCC (16-4, 0-1) posed their only real threat in the game a short time later when Victor Nwagbaraocha rattled off 10 straight points. His 3-pointer cut the IHCC lead to 20-15.
Indian Hills than scored 10 consecutive points, starting with back-to-back 3-point plays by Williams and James Jean-Marie. Allen's two foul shots capped that run and after the Blackhawks finally got on the board, he scored on a short bank shot and a three.
The Warriors eventually went up 41-19 and led by 19 at the break.
The closest that SCC got in the second half was 16 points as IHCC rolled to their 10th straight win in the series and their 12th in the last 13 outings against Southeastern.
Indian Hills shot 57 percent and outrebounded the Blackhawks, 42-28.
DeAndre Barton led SCC in scoring with 22 points and Nwagbaraocha chipped in 20.
IHCC started the league season with a victory in its quest to make it 10 Region XI titles in a row. Next up is a home game with Marshalltown on Jan. 20. The Warriors have only 10 regular season games remaining and seven of them will be at the Hellyer Center.
INDIAN HILLS 102, SOUTHEASTERN 79
INDIAN HILLS
Ivan Aurrecoechea 4 0-2 8, Jamel Allen 9 3-4 24, Antonio Williams 8 3-3 20, Tomas Woldetensae 4 0-0 10, Shane Gatling 6 6-7 21, Devontae Lane 2 1-2 6, Corey Manigault 1 1-2 4, Rob Montgomery 2 1-1 5, James Jean-Marie 1 2-3 4, Javier Valeiras 0 0-0 0 Team 37 17-24 102
SOUTHEASTERN
Patrick Jackson 4 4-4 12, Kourtney Ware 1 7-8 10, Victor Nwagbaraocha 7 5-5 20, Brandon Miller 3 1-3 7, Neshua Wise 1 0-0 3, DeAndre Barton 7 7-8 22, Niksa Nikolic 0 0-0 0, Rodney Johnson 0 0-0 0, Alier Riak 2 0-0 5, Martin Lakovic 0 0-0 0 Team 25 24-28 79
Halftime score: Indian Hills 51, Southeastern 32; Three-point field goals: IHCC 11 (Allen 3, Gatling 3, Woldetensae 2, Williams 1, Lane 1, Manigault 1), SCC 5 (Ware 1, Nwagbaraocha 1, Wise 1, Barton 1, Riak 1)