IOWA FALLS, IA – Winning on the road is never easy, and the old adage held true again Saturday as No. 14-rated Indian Hills struggled to put away one-win Ellsworth, 75-65 at Dittmer Gymnasium.
The Warriors had an easy go of it in the first matchup in Ottumwa back on January 23, winning 100-61, but there would be no repeat performance in Iowa Falls as the pesky Panthers kept it snug most of the way.
"I'm happy we pulled that out," said a relieved IHCC Head Coach Hank Plona after the Warriors moved to 12-2 on the season. "I mean I know what Ellsworth's record is, but this is far from a bad game for us. To come into this environment and be able to get out with a win… we'll take it."
IHCC had earned itself a little wiggle room in the first half, as a Tyrese Nickelson 3-pointer put the Warriors up 29-21 with 5:45 remaining until half. The Panthers (1-13) were unfazed as Josh Kamara ran off four straight with a steal, layup and two free throws thatwere followed with a corner trey from Chase Smith, and just like that Ellsworth was within a point at 29-28 with three minutes until intermission.
"We should have played better defensively," Plona said. "Some things didn't go our way in offense, and we let it affect our defense maybe the last five minutes of the first half."
Ellsworth's Adam Jackson tossed in 3-pointer just before the buzzer to give him 14 point at the half, and the Warriors trailed going to the lockers, 39-36.
Plona found Jackson's effort noteworthy.
"I give him a lot of credit. I thought he kept them in the game," Plona said. "We knew if Jackson played like that, we were going to be in for a game. He made a lot of tough threes, and you know you can't touch him. It's not like it was 10 or 20 years ago where you could say you're just going to be physical with him. I mean, you're not allowed to play that way anymore. We can only try to make him work really hard to get those points.
Ellsworth extended its lead to 44-39, the Panther's largest advantage of the contest, a few minutes into the second half, but an 8-0 Warrior run put IHCC up 47-44 and forced ECC to take a timeout.
Indian Hills floor general Curtis Jones kept the ship steady despite the Warriors inability to deliver the knockout punch. With 6:30 left to play, the Warriors pushed the lead to 60-51 on two Jones free throws to give IHCC its largest lead to that point. The teams traded baskets the rest of the way with the Warriors never leading by more than 13.
Jones netted a career high 26 points with 14 of those coming in the second half on the strength of a 9-of-10 performance from the charity stripe.
"Curt's confidence has been building scoring the ball," Plona added. "He spends so much of his effort on our team and the things that don't stand out in the stat sheet. We took him as a scorer, and we knew Curt could score. We see it a lot in practice every day. I think starting with the Southeastern game last week, he really started getting in the groove. He has a whole presence about him. His whole mindset was very good, so I was happy to see him get comfortable on offense. I thought he was the catalyst for us on both offense and defense."
Jones just missed a double-double as he added nine rebounds. Leading scorer Tyem Freeman did pick up a double-double, his second consecutive, as the Springfield, Missouri native had 18 points, 14 rebounds in addition to three blocks and two assists. Sophomore leaders Chris Payton and Tyrese Nickelson each had 12 points while Taj Anderson added five. Braxton Bayless rounded out the IHCC scoring with two.
Jackson led Ellsworth with 23 points and Kamara had 15 to pace the Panthers.
"Obviously he was the focal point of our defense," Plona said of Jackson. "The last ten minutes of the game we were playing box-and-one on him. Even when we were in man-to-man, he was the focal point, so I felt like only about six to eight of his points were mistakes by us. He made some difficult shots."
"Braxton Bayless was huge for us in the last ten minutes of the game after we really figured out what they wanted to do," Plona added. "Braxton took Jackson out of what he was trying to do. Obviously Jackson is a really good player and he played with a lot of confidence. It's a tough challenge to come and beat a team on their home floor when they have their best player playing like that."
The win kept IHCC at the top of the ICCAC standings at 12-2, which gives the Warriors a half-game lead over second place DMACC (11-2). The week ahead will be a challenging one for Indian Hills as they welcome fifth place Marshalltown (7-4) on Wednesday night and third-place Iowa Lakes (10-4) on Saturday to the Hellyer Center.
"I don't really know Marshalltown's roster and what they do, so we'll take the next couple days to get ready for them," Plona said looking ahead. "We have to take the one at a time, so we'll get to Iowa Lakes when we get there. Marshalltown, I mean, shoot, they're Division One, which means we're going to see them at the end of the year. I don't mean that in a derogatory way towards Division Twos, but in April, it get split into two, and we have to go through Marshalltown, Southeastern and Northeastern. So we'll spend a lot of time figuring out Marshalltown, and trying to make sure we come up with a great game plan because Wednesday is a very important game for us."
Game time Wednesday is 7 p.m.