Pirates Rally Against Coffeyville, Defeat Highland
Despite jumping ahead on the Coffeyville Red Ravens 4-0, Independence found themselves in a big whole in the early going of the first half. Coffeyville jumped to a 30-12 lead and looked as if they were in cruise control. ICC answered with a 20-6 run over the final 7:45 of the first half behind some solid bench play from Chris Heard and some timely shooting of Antonio Hanson to get the Pirates back in the game at halftime. The Pirates found themselves only behind four points 32-36.
The second half opened up with JJ Seymore connecting on 3 straight three point baskets and helped push the Raven lead to 10 points, 47-37. ICC picked up its defense and kept plugging away behind some solid team defense and offense. With the Pirates inching closer, Daniel Rowe tied the ball game at 54 all with 10:54 remaining in the contest.
Coffeyville answered with a 4-0 run to extend the lead to 58-54. ICC would not go away. Antonio Hanson connected on a 3 point basket with 6:28 to go to give ICC its first lead since the beginning of the game at 62-60. The Red Ravens quickly answered with a three point play from Devron Washington to take back a one point advantage 63-62.
With 4:17 to go and the score tied at 66, ICC went on a 6-0 run behind a 3 pointers from Daniel Rowe and Antonio Hanson. ICC would not give up the lead and finished the game out with a hard fought 76-68 victory over Montgomery County and Jayhawk East rival Coffeyville.
ICC was led in scoring by Antonio Hanson with 27 points, including 5 three point baskets. Daniel Rowe followed with 14 point and 4 rebounds. Micheal Craion rounded out the double-digit scoring with 12.
In the third game of the four game home stand, ICC faced the Highland Scotties. The Pirates jumped out to a quick 9-4 lead. The game went back and forth for a while with Highland trailing the Pirates 25-23 with 10:18 remaining in the half. ICC reeled off a 14-2 run to take a 39-24 advantage. Highland fought back and bu the end of the half chipped the 15 point Pirate advantage to just a 6 point deficit, 48-42 going into the intermission.
Highland cut the Indy lead to 5 points but that would be as close as they would get. With the score 50-45 in favor of the Pirates, ICC went on a 19-5 run to take a 69-50 advantage with 12:32 left in the game. ICC led by as many as 23 points and held the Scotties to just 21 points in the second half.
Antonio Hanson and James Bush led the way for Independence with 18 points apiece. Hanson also paced the Pirates with 7 assists. Bush and TJ Stukes shared leading rebounder honors with 8 each. Stukes also added 12 points. Micheal Craion scored 11 points, all in the first half, and Chris Heard scored 10 points to go along with 5 rebounds and 2 steals.
With the victories, ICC moved to 15-3 and 6-0 in conference play. Indy will face Cowley College on Wednesday, January 23 in a battle for first place in the Jayhawk East. Both teams sit atop the conference with a 6-0 record. Game time will start at 8 pm.