The Southwestern men’s basketball team bounced back from a crushing overtime loss Saturday with a 91-63 win over Iowa Central Community College here Wednesday.
The Spartans jumped out to an early 10-3 lead over the Tritons and never looked back, holding a 16-point lead at halftime, 37-21.
“It was important from that standpoint (standings), but also to bounce back from a heartbreaking loss on Saturday,” Spartan head coach Todd Lorensen said. “Found a way to keep our composure. Took us from a full game out of third place to a tie for third place. Definitely a big night for us.”
Southwestern sits in a tie for third place with Ellsworth in the ICCAC Division II standings now at 4-5 in league play. Iowa Central dropped to 4-6 in league play, tied with NIACC.
Lorensen said his team did a good job of executing the gameplan early, which called for pounding the ball inside to sophomore Mataika Koyamainavure.
“We jumped out to a 10-3 lead and executed what we wanted to do,” he said. “We knew we had a good advantage on the block with Mataika. We threw it in to him. I thought our guards did a good job of not forcing the issue. That was a good recipe for us.”
Koyamainavure scored 16 points for the Spartans, doing most of his damage in the first half. The Tritons went with a smaller lineup and played zone in the second half, which allowed Koyamainavure to get some putbacks off offensive rebounds.
When the Triton zone converged on Koyamainavure, he was able to kick it back out to the Spartan guards.
Freshman Josh Tolbert came in off the bench and connected on five 3-pointers in the second half against Iowa Central’s zone.
“Those were big shots,” Lorensen said.
Jaylon Smith scored 10 points for the Spartans, while Ahmad Newsome ran the offense efficiently and shot 2-of-2 from behind the 3-point arc.
“He really ran the show for us offensively,” Lorensen said. “Defensively, he guarded Deon Wright, who really hurt us the first time. He had 24 against us up there. Deon ended up with 16, but at least four or five of those were in the last five minutes of the game when it was all but over.”
The Spartans extended their lead to a 20-point margin early in the second half and the lead grew to as much as 31.
Lorensen also praised freshman post player Simon Joseph, who came in off the bench to score double digits, with a couple of dunks and putbacks.
Southwestern, now 20-8 overall, returns to action Saturday at 11th-ranked Kirkwood (21-5, 7-2).
“We’re playing at a high level right now, as they are,” Lorensen said. “Should be a pretty good matchup for both teams.”