Council Bluffs, Iowa -- For the second time in 48 hours, fifth-ranked Indian Hills thwarted a comeback attempt in the second half and stretched the margin in the final minutes, this time knocking off Iowa Western, 82-63, on Saturday night.  The victory keeps the Warriors alone in first place in the ICCAC standings with a 5-1 record.  Southeastern is 5-2 and Iowa Western 4-3. 

The Warriors saw Moberly Area come from 19 points behind in the second half of their Thursday game to tie the score before IHCC pulled away to win by seven.

Indian Hills had five players reach double figures against Iowa Western, topped by Chirs Payton's 21 points.  Drake Jeffries added 14 and had half of his team's eight 3-pointers.  Chris Childs made three more 3s -- he now has 94 for the season -- on his way to 13 points.

In the second half, Iowa Western fought back from a 49-35 deficit to get within five points on a three by Jalen Dalcourt.  That was as close as the Reivers got, but the difference was only nine points before IHCC put the contest away with a 9-0 burst.  Childs and Jeffries buried threes on consecutive possessions and Payton came through with a dunk and a free throw and the late run finished off IWCC.

Samba Kane contributed to IHCC's first-half attack with five field goals and 10 points coming off the bench.  His dunk finished off a fast break and gave Indian Hills a 36-23 lead with 6:27 to go in the half.  Kane wound up with nine rebounds.  Malique Jacobs also had nine boards and 11 points and six assists for the Warriors.  Payton picked off nine rebounds too and the combination of Kane, Jacobs and Payton helped IHCC to a hefty 42-21 edge on the glass.

Josiah Strong did his best to keep IWCC alive in the opening 20 minutes, scoring 15 of their 33 points.  But Strong got extra attention in the final period and didn't score another point.  Caleb Huffman led the Reivers with 18.

The Indian Hills bench players outscored Iowa Western's, 32-4.

The Warriors face their final non-conference test of the regular season Wednesday when they host North Central Missouri, ranked No. 1 in NJCAA Division II, at 7:00.  Then two league games remain -- vs. Northeast (Neb.) and at Marshalltown CC.

INDIAN HILLS 82, IOWA WESTERN 63

INDIAN HILLS (24-3, 5-1)

Chris Payton 9 3-4 21, Maurice Calloo 1 4-4 7, Tyrese Nickelson 1 2-2 4, Loseni Kamara 0 0-0 0, Chris Childs 4 2-2 13, Malique Jacobs 4 3-6 11, Tyon Grant-Foster 1 0-0 2, Drake Jeffries 5 0-0 14, Ben Lyon 0 0-0 0, Samba Kane 5 0-0 10  Team 30 14-18 82

IOWA WESTERN (15-12, 4-3)

Josiah Strong 6 0-0 15, Caleb Huffman 7 2-2 18, Jalen Dalcourt 3 0-2 8, Kaleb Thornton 2 1-1 5, Seneca Louis 6 1-4 13, Damontrez Ruffin 0 2-4 2, Mal Pine 1 0-0 2  Team 25 6-13 63

Halftime score: Indian Hills 45, Iowa Western 33; Three-point field goals: IHCC 8 (Jeffries 4, Childs 3, Calloo 1), IWCC 7 (Strong 3, Huffman 2, Dalcourt 2)