COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA – In a game that left little drama from the outset, Indian Hills powered its way to a sixth-straight victory with an 85-49 demolition of host Iowa Western.
The contest featured no ties and zero lead changes in what traditionally has been a hotly contested battle, but if one were to ask IHCC Head Coach Hank Plona about the lack of intrigue inside of Reiver Arena, you'll likely receive not even a shred of disappointment from the 6th year headman of the Warriors.
"To jump off the bus and beat a team that was 4-2 and would have been tied with us had they won, it was very impressive by our guys," Plona said after the victory.
Perhaps even more impressive was the ease with which Plona's troops earned the win as the 36-point margin was by far the largest IHCC victory at Council Bluffs in the program's history. The two teams have been squaring off since the 1984-85 season and a 23-point win in 2001-02 was the previous largest road triumph over the Reivers (98-75). Wednesday's win could only be rivaled historically by the 1995-96 edition of the Warriors who owned both 44 and 36-point wins over Iowa Western, but both of those victories came at the Hellyer Center.
Plona credited the win on his players' ability to take away what IWCC wanted to do.
"Overall, our guys and the way they communicated had a lot to do with what happened tonight," Plona said. "Iowa Western is a talented team. Their two leading scorers average 40 points, and tonight they got 12."
"We really focused on their main guys and that cause some of their lesser scoring players to take more shots than they wanted to," Plona added. "That kind of played into our hands."
IHCC sprinted out to a 24-6 bulge just eight minutes into the contest, which set the tone for the remainer of the evening. Seven different Warriors contributed offensively to that early run, and Plona credited the defensive scheme that would eventually turn into offensive spurts.
"We made a great run with our pressure and 2-3 zone at the beginning of the game," noted Plona. "Then we went to our normal defense in the middle of the first half, but when we went back to it late in the half we had another 10-0 run right before the break and I thought that was what really changed the game."
The Warriors had pushed the lead to 33-13 after a Tyem Freeman layup and 3-pointer, and after seeing the Reivers claw back to within 35-23 on a Dhashon Dyson trey, IHCC scored the last eleven points of the opening stanza, fueled by eight points from Levar Williams, including back-to-back shots from distance to close out the half, handing Indian Hills a 46-23 lead at intermission.
The second half only added to the Reivers' demise as the hosts made the first bucket of the 2nd half to pull within 21, but sophomore standout Chris Payton's 3-pointer immediately answered to push it back to a 49-25 lead and IWCC would never get closer than 23 points the rest of the way.
Plona again credited his defense as being the catalyst for the offensive surge.
"We took away the right guys from Iowa Western," said Plona. "It's not a normal 2-3 zone. We ask Gabe Oliveira and Chris Payton to really protect the rim and other guys down low have to be really aggressive in attacking the wings. That's not easy to do in game seven of a season. There's been times when we haven't brought that type of defense out until game twenty of the season, but with how our season started and with their only being 22 games, why wait to pull out what we really need to execute to win these games?"
The defensive philosophy resulted in Iowa Western shooting a miserable 3-for-26 from three-point range (11.5%) and the Reivers were 20-for-69 from the field for the entire contest, a paltry 29 percent. Only one Reiver reached double-figures as Dyson came off the bench to collect 10 points for IWCC.
Wednesday's win saw yet another impressive effort from freshman Tyem Freeman as the reigning ICCAC Player of the Week again led the Warriors offensively with 19 points and was 3-for-3 from distance and added six rebounds in just 21 minutes of action. Perhaps the most encouraging result from the contest was the re-emergence of Payton offensively as the preseason NJCAA All-American had his best overall effort with 18 point, 14 rebound double-double for IHCC in just 19 minutes of play.
"We had Chris with 10 or 11 rebounds at half and he was a force on the boards and protecting the rim, just like he's been all along," Plona said of his standout sophomore. "Chris wants to produce and there's high expectations for him and his role on our team."
"The goal is to get back to Hutch," Plona added. "Chris earned that trip as a freshman and he didn't get the chance due to the pandemic. He's such a matchup nightmare for people. Hopefully tonight kick starts him on the offensive side."
Freeman and Payton joined three other Warriors in double figures as Williams ended with 13 points and five assists while Taj Anderson added 12 points and four boards. Curtis Jones continued to run things from the point for 35 of the 40 minutes, logging 10 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists.
IHCC pounded the glass the entire night and ended up owning a 57-29 rebounding margin.
The Warriors will now look forward to another Saturday afternoon at the Hellyer Center as they play host to Iowa Central. The Tritons will enter this weekend's battle at 4-3 overall and were 98-83 winners over Northeast Wednesday night.
"We've never played Iowa Central since I've been here, and I couldn't tell you anything about them at this point," Plona added in postgame. "I know it's coach speak, but we were focused on this one, and I really have no feel for what they do."
Game time Saturday is set for 3 p.m.