Council Bluffs, IA -- The Iowa Western men's basketball team found themselves in familiar territory Wednesday (1/15) evening as they opened their home conference slate against Marshalltown. The Reivers; whom had secured many of their victories this season in come-from-behind fashion, collected perhaps their most improbable comeback win to date; as they found themselves trailing by five points with 30 seconds to play and Marshalltown possessing the ball. Iowa Western would somehow, someway force overtime in the game's final seconds and go on to win 86-81 in overtime.
The contest's opening minutes saw Marshalltown open up a 10-0 advantage. Jalen Dalcourt would prove to have two of the game's most important baskets, the first ending the opening run by the visiting Tigers with a 3pt field goal to finally get the scoring started for the Reivers. It didn't take long from that moment for the Iowa western to tie things up at 16 all with 12:12 until intermission. Both teams played the rest of the half almost evenly until a late surge by Marshalltown gave the Tigers a 36-28 advantage at the break.
Marshalltown held their halftime lead much of the second half with their lead fluctuating from seven to two points, but never able to shake off the Reivers. Iowa Western finally gained it's first lead since midway through the first half: after switching to it's full court and zone defenses which would lead to 22 Tiger turnovers at game's end, on a Josiah Strong 3pt shot with 7:22 to play. The game began to go back-and-forth from there; in a contest that would ultimately have six ties and eight lead changes.
Marshalltown seemed to have the game wrapped up in the game's final minute, up five with the ball, and only 30 seconds remaining. But following a missed free throw, Dalcourt came up with his second big shot of the evening, a wing 3pt shot to trim the Tiger lead to a single possession at 67-65 with 22 seconds left. After two made Tiger free throws extended their lead back up to four, it was then Strong's turn to hit another Reiver three point shot to get within one point at 69-68 with 14 seconds to play. Marshalltown was once again sent to the foul line, this time only converting on one of two free throws, leaving Iowa Western an opportunity to either win with a go ahead three point basket or send the contest into an extra frame with a traditional two point bucket. The Reivers elected for the tie, and scored on a Kaleb Thornton driving basket with just 4.9 seconds to go. On that driving basket, the Tigers were called for a foul; however Thornton's free throw was just off and following a Thornton defensive deflection that eliminated Marshalltown from getting a potential game winning shot off, the game remarkably found itself headed for overtime at 70 points apiece.
In the overtime session, Iowa Western used it's newly found momentum to build a sizable seven point lead at 77-70. Marshalltown continued to fight and got the game back to within a single possession two separate times; but Caleb Huffman, who led all scorers with 24 points, calmly sank two clutch free throws with 15 seconds remaining to keep the Tigers from getting back the momentum the Reivers had taken from them at the end of regulation just five minutes earlier.
Four Reivers scored in double figures: Huffman (24pts), Strong (21pts), Dalcourt (16pts), and Thornton who added a team high 5 assists to his 14 point effort.
Up next for the Iowa Western is a trip to Ottumwa, IA to face off against #4 Indian Hills. Tip time between the Reivers and Warriors is slated for 7:00pm this Saturday (1/18) evening.
