Council Bluffs, IA -- #20 Iowa Western's bench outscored their visiting North Platte counterparts 25-7 in the Reivers' 76-72 victory Saturday (11/25) afternoon at the newly renamed Reiver Arena. However, Iowa Western prefers to call it's bench play more of a "second wave" of starters. Indeed the Reiver reserves have already shown multiple examples of little to no drop off from their starting counterparts this season; and in the game against the visiting Knights they proved to spark the final several minutes of basketball from a potential defeat into a memorable comeback win.
After a high energy first half between the NJCAA D1 programs; who last met in an Iowa Western 79-74 victory in a "sweet 16" match-up at the NJCAA national tournament in 2013, the Reivers found themselves trailing 38-30 at the break.
North Platte would extend their lead to 13 points at 47-60 with 8:30 minutes left in regulation when Iowa Western began their comeback push behind the aforementioned "second wave" of Shadeed Shabazz, Rhyss Lewis, Shaun Doss, Adalberto Diaz, and Tony Chukwuemeke; and it's 2-3 zone. It was the first time all season the (8-1) Reivers supplemented their zone into game action; and with the effort of the Reivers on the floor the zone began to both energize the Reiver offense with steals and run-out baskets as well as stall a Knight offense that had been running clock with it's man-to-man offense most of the contest. Shabazz, Lewis, and Doss started the comeback with multiple steals as well as two and three point baskets in the half court offense. Shabazz would finish the game with 13 points, Lewis would add 7 points as well as run the offense, and Doss added 5 points. Of note was that all 25 of those points from the three came during the second half of play.
With 3:45 to play Patrick Dembley, Isaiah Wade, and Jevon Smith reentered the fray to finish what their teammates had started. Dembley, Smith, and Shabazz finished the game scoring the team's final 18 points between the three; while Wade and Diaz cleaned up the boards limited North Platte to any extra shots during the same stretch. Dembley finished with a team high 20 points with Smith adding 15 in a comeback that saw Iowa Western outscore the Knights from North Platte 29-12 in the contest's final 8:30 minutes.
Iowa Western returns to action this Tuesday evening (11/28) against Penn Valley out of Kansas City, MO. The game will be played at Reiver Arena on the campus of Iowa Western, with the opening tip at 7:00pm.
