West Burlington, Iowa -- Southeastern CC used a 15-2 run in the opening minutes of the second half to overcome an Indian Hills lead and the Blackhawks used the 3-point field goal to their advantage in dealing the Warriors a 73-69 loss at Loren Walker Arena Wednesday night.
It was the conference opener for 4th-ranked Indian Hills and the defeat ended their 11-game winning streak.
The Warriors fought back from a 6-point deficit to tie the score at 58-all with 4:56 to play. That's when Southeastern flexed its 3-point muscle, getting back-to-back treys from Carlos Lemus and Boubacar Kamissoko to go up by six and they protected that advantage the rest of the way. The Blackhawks made only one 3-pointer the entire first half, then connected on seven shots from behind the arc in the final period. Kamissoko's was the 7th and final three for an SCC team that had averaged only six made treys in its first 20 games.
A Malique Jacobs basket with 17.9 seconds remaining got the Warriors to within 69-66, but Camryn Weston made both ends of a one-and-one seven seconds later and, after a Drake Jeffries 3-pointer for IHCC made it 71-69 with 4.1 seconds on the clock, Weston hit two more free throws to provide the final margin.
Indian Hills came into the contest working on a streak of nine conecutive games with at least 12 3-pointers, but hit only 6-of-20 against SCC, and only 2-of-10 in the final 20 minutes. The first of those makes came from Tyon Grant-Foster at the one-minute mark to cut a six-point Southeastern lead in half. Grant-Foster had a chance to tie the score the next possession for IHCC but his 3-point try was off the mark and SCC then nailed down the win with six straight foul shots.
Southeastern led only once in the first half, on Diew Moses's 3-point play which started the scoring. Indian Hills eventually widened their lead to nine late in the half. Moses drilled a three -- the only one of the opening period for SCC -- and Jacobs connected on a free throw to give the Warriors a 7-point lead at intermission.
After scoring only 27 points and making just 10 field goals in the opening 20 minutes, SCC hit six shots and tallied 15 of the first 17 points in the first 2:57 after halftime to go ahead 42-36. Although they came back to tie the score twice and even took a brief one-point lead at 48-47 on a pair of Maurice Calloo free throws, Indian Hills couldn't get consistent stops on the defensive end to keep the Blackhawks from winning their second straight conference game.
Southeastern won the game despite shooting only 40 percent from the field, partly because they won the rebounding battle, 40-35, and they forced 17 IHCC turnovers. Indian Hills made only 6-of-22 3-point attempts.
Grant-Foster's 24 points led all scorers but the only other Warrior in double figures was Calloo with 10. Moses topped SCC with his 20 points and Lemus, a 6-3 guard, pulled down 14 rebounds, 12 of them on the defensive glass.
It was the first loss in 54 days for the Warriors, who sustained two one-point defeats in mid-November in Florida and had rolled through 11 straight games since then. They will take a 17-3 record into the league home opener against Iowa Western CC on Saturday night.
SOUTHEASTERN 73, INDIAN HILLS 69
INDIAN HILLS
Chris Payton 4 1-1 9, Maurice Calloo 3 4-5 10, Loseni Kamara 1 0-0 2, Chris Childs 2 0-0 5, Malique Jacobs 3 3-4 9, Tyon Grant-Foster 6 9-14 24, Drake Jeffries 2 0-0 6, Theo Bourgeois 0 0-0 0, Samba Kane 2 0-0 4 Team 23 17-24 69
SOUTHEASTERN
Aaris Bonds 4 1-2 9, Boubacar Kamissoko 5 0-0 11, Elias Ezenekwe 5 2-4 14, Carlos Lemus 2 4-5 9, Maganeh Abdi 0 0-0 0, Camryn Weston 1 5-7 7, Diew Moses 8 1-1 20, Dadrian Hoambrecker 1 0-0 3, Gavin Kies 0 0-0 0 Team 26 13-21 73
Halftime score: Indian Hills 34, Southeastern 27; Three-point field goals: IHCC 6 (Grant-Foster 3, Jeffries 2, Childs 1), SCC 8 (Moses 3, Ezenekwe 2, Kamissoko 1, Lemus 1, Hoambrecker 1)