JUCO basketball: Warriors stymie McCook
Feb. 28—OTTUMWA — Only one team this season has managed to put up at least 100 points on the scoreboard against the Indian Hills men's basketball team.
That team arrived in Ottumwa on Monday almost 16 weeks after reaching the century mark against the Warriors. Of course, that game back on Nov. 7 in Nebraska was the opening game of the season for an Indian Hills team with a whole lot of new faces still learning to co-exist on the hardwood.
Three months, 19 days and 27 games later, No. 13 Indian Hills produced a much different result against McCook. The Warriors held the Indians to just 59 points and just over 37 percent shooting from the field, dominating the penultimate game of the regular season winning 92-59 in a game that was a far cry from IHCC's 109-100 season-opening road win nearly four months ago.
"We talked about that first game a lot and talked about allowing 100 points to anyone as a mark against us," Indian Hills freshman Amarion Nimmers said. "We've been preaching defense all week. We've gotten a lot better since the first game of the season. That all comes back to putting more things in place and building more chemistry with each other to know where each other's going to be out there on the floor."
Indian Hills set the tone for a much different game with McCook immediately, countering a pair of early 3-pointers by Louie Tucker by scoring nine unanswered points to take the lead for good with 14:15 left. Different players stepped up at different times to help IHCC build and expand their lead starting with T.J. Morris, who scored seven of his 13 points in the first nine minutes helping the Warriors open an 18-10 advantage.
"Two minutes into the game, I didn't feel like (McCook) was playing as hard as they should have been playing," Morris said. "We needed people to step up. I was trying to help us out. It feels good when everyone can get involved in the game."
When the focus shifted to slowing down Morris, the Warriors needed someone else to step up. Cue Nimmers who sank four shots from beyond the 3-point line, including consecutive makes from opposite corners, while scoring 13 of his game-high 20 points in a five-minute span helping Indian Hills open a 40-14 lead late in the first half.
"On this team, everyone is capable of putting the basketball in the hoop. That makes us tough to guard," Nimmers said. "Everyone's kind of that way. Once one of us sees one shot go in, that usually leads to someone getting hot. It just helps to show everyone that we've got another weapon on the team. I'm going to continue to stay ready in case my number gets called again."
McCook, after scoring 50 points in each half of the Nov. 7 contest with Indian Hills, managed only 20 points in the first half on Monday allowing the Warriors to carry a 24-point lead into the second half. The Indians (10-18) began to get into the groove that allowed McCook to reach the century mark earlier this year against the Warriors early in the second half as Ty Foster began to heat up, scoring eight points in the opening five minutes to help cut IHCC's lead down to 58-40 with 11 minutes to go.
As he did on Saturday during a 78-69 win over regional rival Southeastern, William Beugre-Kassi went above the rim to help elevate the Warriors. After tipping back in a rebound with 8:54 to go, Beugre-Kassi snared a defensive rebound and drive down the court slamming home a lob pass from Davontae Hall to emphatically put the Warriors back in command with a 66-42 lead.
"I try to give my energy to the team whenever I can, whether that's on a fast break or a big dunk," Beugre-Kassi said. "It's something natural for me. I just go to the basket and use my length to my advantage. When I do something good, I love it when the fans react the way they do."
Kheni Briggs added 15 points off the bench for the Warriors in the victory. Foster led McCook with 15 points while Tucker added 14 points for the Indians.
"We've grown a lot as a team over the past 29 games," Indian Hills head men's basketball coach Josh Sash said. "That first game of the year was by far our worst defensive performance of the year. It was the first college game for a lot of our guys in that game.
"I really liked our defensive energy right from the start in this game. They (McCook) were sitting on 11 points for a long time, especially after they hit a couple of early 3-pointers. We had big-time contributions up and down the line-up. We didn't need anyone to be Super Man, but we definitely needed everyone to step up."
Indian Hills (24-5) will carry an eight-game winning streak into Sophomore Night on Saturday. The 13th-ranked Warriors will close out the regular season hosting No. 4 Triton in a battle of national tournament contenders with IHCC hoping to avenge an 81-65 loss to the Trojans suffered in Illinois back on Jan. 31.
"It's going to be a very significant challenge for us the second time around," Sash said. "We had a lead in the second half of that first game and couldn't quite figure out how to finish the game. I thought we did a good job guarding them at the 3-point line, but we didn't do a very good job guarding them disciplined. We bailed them out on a couple of drives by fouling them and letting them get to the free throw line 32 times in that second half.
"We have to be more disciplined guarding the ball. Hopefully, we'll get another big crowd out here to support us against a team that's only lost once all year. It's a big opportunity for us going into the postseason."
— Scott Jackson can be reached at sjackson@ottumwacourier.com. Follow him on Twitter@CourierScott.
