OTTUMWA, IA – No. 10-rated Indian Hills held off a second-half surge from upset-minded Southwestern Wednesday night at the Hellyer Center, winning 68-63, which locked up at least a share of the ICCAC regular season title and avenged one of just two losses the Warriors have suffered in their 2021 campaign.  It was the ninth consecutive win for Indian Hills.

IHCC, now 17-2, built a 15-point cushion at halftime, and at the urging of their head coach, extended the lead to 20 at the 16:39 mark of the second half. The visitors from Creston wouldn't go away, however, and proved their stunning season-opening victory over IHCC was no fluke.  The Spartans chipped away at the 20-point bulge and had the lead trimmed to just one with 3:11 to play and the ball in their possession.

"I think it's probably a 50/50 game that could have gone either way right there," admitted IHCC Head Coach Hank Plona.  "Our guys did a great job of sticking together and playing hard, persevering and coming out with a win." 

And win they did, as a refuse-to-lose formula of taking care of the ball and making free throws down the stretch provided the Warriors another victory.  Tyrese Nickelson had five of IHCC's last seven points as the gritty guard's bucket with a minute to play combined with 3-of-4 makes from the charity stripe to hold off the Spartans (10-9).

"I thought Tyrese Nickelson was outstanding tonight," Plona said.  "He was playing at the point where we couldn't take him off the floor.  He was also guarding number 15 (Donzell) Johnson, who's a very good player, and Tyrese was swarming him.  A strength of our team is we don't turn the ball over a lot, and we do make free throws, and that's usually a recipe to win close games."

"Obviously when you're up by 20, you hope that something like this doesn't happen, but they're a good basketball team with a chip on their shoulder, they're going to play aggressive.  Credit to them for clawing back into that game.  It's the first time we've been in a situation where we've blown one of these leads this year.  If you watch a little basketball, it happens a lot.  In the NBA, 20-point leads are not safe.  In college basketball, 20-point leads are not safe."

The Warriors had earned the large halftime and early second half margins by being the aggressor and playing with the fast pace Plona prefers as IHCC got four first-half threes from Levar Williams and three from Nickelson put SWCC on their heels.

"We played pretty well in the first half," Plona admitted. "Tyrese made a couple quick transition threes, and Levar made a quick, aggressive threes, and then all of a sudden, we started playing a little bit hesitant, and we weren't playing as aggressive."

A Curtis Jones triple with 16:39 to play earned the Warriors their biggest lead of the night at 48-28, but it was then that the aforementioned lack of aggressiveness began.

"At 48-28 they scored eight in a row and we called a timeout, but we couldn't really stop the bleeding," Plona explained.

Out of the timeout, Southwestern drilled another from distance and the Spartans had cut it to single digits.  From that point, it was game on.  Fortunately, the Warriors were up to the task.

"It's a sign that we have a good team that we have guys that don't shy away from the big moments," Plona said.  "When it gets tough, we seem to get better, and I'll take that over a team that gets flustered or nervous when it gets close.  We have guys that seem to make plays and get the rebounds and score on offense and get the stops, so we've been in a lot of close games this year and we're 17-2, so there's a lot of positives to take from that."

Williams led the Warriors in scoring with 16 points, followed by 14 each from Nickelson and Chris Payton.  Payton recorded yet another double-double with 11 rebounds to go with his 14 points.  IHCC picked up 10 points from leading scorer Tyem Freeman to round out the Indian Hills players in double figures.

"Levar Williams played with a lot more confidence on offense and that helped us tonight," Plona said. "They were seriously focused on not letting T-Free drive the ball to the basket, and I thought that got us in a little bit of a funk, but it's good that we can win in different ways. Their style obviously gives us problems, so we're definitely happy to come out with a win in a game like this."

A quick glance ahead shows that the regular season is quickly coming to a close as the Warriors have just two contests remaining.  A road trip to Estherville on Saturday at 3 p.m. to face Iowa Lakes (13-6) will be followed up with the regular season finale' on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Hellyer Center against Kirkwood (12-7).

While the Warriors have sewn up the ICCAC Division I top-seed, capturing the ICCAC conference title outright is still on the table.  More importantly, a big-picture goal is within reach if Plona's troops stay on their current track.

"I think our players are all very aware that Iowa Lakes and Kirkwood are very good basketball teams," Plona said.  "Unlike previous years, there is no break before the postseason this season (Region Tournament begins Saturday, April 3), so my bigger concern is whether our guys are subconsciously trying to physically rest ourselves a little bit, because you tend to shoot threes because you don't want to make the extra play, and you tend to not play help defense, and if we do that versus Iowa Lakes and Kirkwood, we're going to lose."

Plona realizes that with a pair of wins to close out the regular season, a 19-2 top-ten rated Indian Hills squad will most likely have positioned itself to earn a NJCAA at large bid to the National Tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas, regardless of the outcome in the Regional and District Tournaments.

"There are two paths to get to Hutch, and for sure, we want to win the district and take the 100 percent path," Plona explained.  "At the same time you want to position yourself so if something goes wrong in the postseason, you have the other path available.  So, I think, if we lose either one of these last two games, our path becomes a lot shorter.  So, these games are very important.  Our guys know that."

"With everything that's gone on this past year, I'll tell you that we just want to be invited to the party," Plona said.  "If they want us to play an undefeated South Plains or a Mineral Area team, we will play them.  To win a National Championship, you have to beat a lot of really good teams.  We're at the point that we want to reward the guys. Typically we have guys in our locker room that have been on that trip before, and while Chris, Tyrese and Theo have earned it, they didn't get to go last year.  It's the coolest part of the season, and it's big time.  We want to experience that together.  You can't win a National Title if you don't make it to Hutch, so we want this ride to go as far as we can.  It's been a fun and successful season.  At the same time, there are many, many goals still in front of us."