Ottumwa -- Indian Hills on Saturday night added the Region 11 postseason championship to the regular season crown it had earned a week before with a 107-91 defeat of Northeast (Neb.) at the Hellyer Center. The Warriors outfought Northeast on the Hawks' home floor the previous weekend and led nearly from wire-to-wire in the home contest that allowed them to sweep the league titles.
One hallmark of this year's IHCC squad, which will take a 28-4 record into the district championship game, has been the contributions it has gotten up and down the lineup, and that was evident again in the second consecutive win over the Hawks.
Seven IHCC players scored in double figures and J.R. Harris just missed making it eight with his nine points as the Warriors pushed their home record to 22-1. The lone loss at the Hellyer Center was an overtime defeat at the hands of Northeast on Jan. 24. That was a game in which the Warriors saw a 20-point, second-half lead slip away in the final seven-plus minutes of regulation.
In the latest meeting between IHCC and the Hawks, Indian Hills again claimed a 20-point advantage, this time in the first half. The Warriors sprinted away from a 5-5 tie to grab a 22-9 lead and eventually expanded the margin to 20 on two occasions.
A late first-half lapse by the Warriors and improved field-goal shooting by Northeast allowed the visitors to cut the lead in half by intermission.
Northeast was able to shave the margin from 20 to 10 despite shooting only 31 percent in the opening half. For the game, they made 37 percent of their shots, while IHCC converted exactly half of their 68 field goal attempts.
The closest the Hawks got in the second half was seven points when they got the deficit to 65-58. Sophomore Gary Williams, Jr., who was saddled with foul problems in the first half and scored only two points, showed his value to his team with back-to-back buckets, around a Jan Svandrlik field goal to boost the lead back to 13.
Williams was one of the seven double-figure scorers for the Warriors with 14 points to go along with seven assists.
Jerrelle DeBerry led IHCC with 15 and Jordan Washington and Louis Adams, Jr. each chipped in 13. It was Washington's 15th straight game in double figures.
Akolda Manyang again was a force on the inside, coming off the bench to score 11 points and leading the IHCC rebounding with 12. The 7-footer also blocked seven shots.
L.J. Westbrook paced NCC with a game-high 22 points. The Hawks got double-doubles from both Chima Moneke (12 points and 13 rebounds) and Buay Tuach (17 and 10) as their season ended with a 25-7 mark.
INDIAN HILLS 107, NORTHEAST 91
INDIAN HILLS
Akolda Manyang 5 1-1 11, Malik Dime 3 4-6 10, Gary Williams, Jr. 4 5-6 14, Jordan Furlow 2 7-8 11, Jerrelle DeBerry 5 3-7 15, J.R. Harris 2 4-5 9, Jordan Washington 5 3-8 13, Louis Adams, Jr. 4 4-5 13, Christian Musoko 2 1-2 5, Jan Svandrlik 2 1-2 6 Team 34 33-50 107
NORTHEAST
Chima Moneke 4 4-6 12, Jalen Bradley 6 2-2 15, Buay Tuach 4 8-11 17, Dionte Smith 1 3-7 5, Kevin Metoyer 1 2-2 5, L.J. Westbrook 7 6-7 22, Torrell Sutton 3 1-3 7, Boris Rajovic 2 4-4 8, Peirre Conwell 0 0-2 0 Team 28 30-44 91
Halftime score: Indian Hills 50, Northeast 40; Three-point field goals: IHCC 6 (DeBerry 2, Williams 1, Harris 1, Adams 1, Svandrlik 1), NCC 5 (Westbrook 2, Bradley 1, Tuach 1, Metoyer 1)