Courtesy Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil
COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA
Another Reiver Arena overtime thriller. In an epic battle that would ultimately have 27 lead changes and 10 ties, Iowa Western's Caleb Huffman's dunk as time expired (0.1 secs left) gave Iowa Western the final lead change and a 75-74 conference victory over NJCAA #16 ranked Southeastern Wednesday (1/22) night.
Trailing by one with a little over seven seconds left, Reiver guard Kaleb Thornton created dribble penetration before kicking the ball to Huffman, who got to the rim and sent the Iowa Western faithful home happy. "We knew the game would be won at the rim. Win or lose, we wanted to get to the rim there," Iowa Western head coach Michael Johnette said in his final message to the team with 7.1 seconds to go, "turned out Caleb sure did."
The five-minute overtime was back and forth, with the teams exchanging the lead seven times over the final 2:37 of game time.
Johnette credited both teams for a high level of offensive execution in the final minutes. "The thing that was great about tonight's game is neither team really lost the game. It came down to who had the ball last," he said. "The game wasn't lost because of a mistake, miss, or lack of execution by either team, the game was won. We happened to get the ball last. That, to me, is just quality competition."
Iowa Western had the ball last in regulation as well, when Thornton got a steal with 22 seconds to play. But rather than fly down the floor a press the issue he took heed of his coach's instructions from the prior timeout. "We told our guys if/when we got a stop we would take the last shot, we would either win it or go to overtime on our home floor. KT (Thornton) was cool under pressure when a lot of guys might have tried to shoot it giving time for Southeastern to get another look. Kaleb helped us win tonight with that decision at the end of regulation as well."
Huffman and Josiah Strong led Iowa Western in scoring with 20 points apiece; while Thornton rounded off the double-figure scorers with 10 points.
Johnette said the team was patient for one another, getting their shots in the flow of the offense. The coach said he stressed time of possession against Southeastern. "Our question we kept asking them before the game, at half time, and during the game -- are we making them guard as long and as hard as they're making us?" he said. "That patience in how the guys scored. Nobody forced shots."
