Reivers near century mark for second straight game

#20 Iowa Western's Beto Diaz and his Reiver teammates jumped out to a 47-20 haltime lead in game one of the State Fair Roadrunner Tip-Off Classic en-route to a 99-59 victory.
#20 Iowa Western's Beto Diaz and his Reiver teammates jumped out to a 47-20 haltime lead in game one of the State Fair Roadrunner Tip-Off Classic en-route to a 99-59 victory.

Sedalia, MO -- The Iowa Western men's basketball team eclipsed the century mark in there first outing of the 2017-18 season Wednesday evening with a 111-85 win over Concordia JV.  In the second contest of the new season, they once again knocked on the century mark door with a 99-59 victory over Next Level Prep out of Wichita, KS in game one of the State Fair Roadrunner Tip-Off Classic.

Though the 99 point effort was noteworthy, it was the defensive end of the floor that was the true story.  The 20th ranked Reivers help Next Level Prep to a mere 20 points as the teams entered the locker rooms at the halftime break.  Leading 47-20 at the turn, they never looked back, holding the prep program to 31% (19/61) shooting from the floor and an amazing 6% (1/16) from the three point stripe.

Led by NCAA D1 transfer (Southern Utah) Decardo Day's 16 points and 3 assists, the Reivers showed balanced scoring as all but three Reivers scored in the contest. Iowa Western had three other players score in double figures along with Day; fellow freshman Shaun Doss and Emmanuel Ugboh contributed 14 and 13 respectively, while sophomore Patrick Dembley added 12 points. Iowa Western shot 50% (37/74) from the floor and when they did miss, they collected 20 offensive rebounds.

The 40 point margin came against a prep program that had shown success against junior college programs in earlier showcase jamborees this past October, having beaten Heston (KS) and Highland (KS). Next Level Prep was lead by Quinton Johnson's 20 point, 12 rebound effort.

Up next for the men's basketball program will be Missouri Valley JV as game three of the State Fair Roadrunner Tip-Off Classic Saturday afternoon (11/4). Tip time is slated for 3:00pm CST.