Eagles surge in second half

The underdog Spartan men were brewing a major upset at halftime of their game against 10th-ranked Kirkwood Saturday as Southwestern hosted the Region XI tournament last weekend.

The sixth-seeded Spartans perfectly executed their defensive game plan in building a remarkable 27-10 halftime lead over the third-seeded Eagles, coached by former Southwestern assistant Tim Sandquist.

The Eagles, entering tournament play at 24-5 for the season, struggled through a dismal offensive first half, making 2 of 31 shots from the field (6.5%) as the Spartans grinded out 27 points on 36% shooting.

“The guys did a great job with our game plan,” Southwestern first-year coach Shane Sweany said. “Their bigs don’t shoot the three, and they’d been getting a lot of their points from playing from the inside with high-low action. Our plan was to take that away, take away their shooters that came in, and make them beat us from the outside with everybody else. It worked in the first half.”

Sandquist, who served as assistant coach for Spartan coach Mike Holmes in the 2011-12 season, seemed almost bewildered as he stared at the first-half statistical sheet before meeting with his team. The Eagles had missed 29 of 31 field goals and made only 5 of 11 free throws.

“We had not been shooting great in the last few games from the perimeter,” Sandquist said. “They packed the paint against us and made it hard to get inside and make plays from there. It was probably the worst half we’ve ever had by a team I’ve coached. On top of that there was some jitters from our freshmen, kind of in a playing not-to-lose mentality.”

After the game, Sweany praised Sandquist and his team for making adjustments to change the momentum of the game in the second half. In a complete turnaround, Kirkwood outscored the Spartans 47-22 over those 20 minutes to advance with a 57-49 victory.

In the end, Southwestern barely held an advantage in shooting percentage (34.5 to 32.8) and the Eagles outscored the Spartans 15-6 from behind the 3-point arc. Southwestern’s offense sputtered as the Eagles moved into a 42-42 tie with 7:01 left, ending on a 15-7 run down the stretch.

Kirkwood comeback

“Coach Sandquist made great adjustments at halftime,” Sweany said. “They started playing a bit faster and we kind of got shellshocked with their run. We almost got a little too conservative in the second half instead of being aggressive. We struggled to make shots, and free throws (9 of 19) killed us. It’s an emotional loss, especially with having the opportunity to host. Holding them to 10 points at the half was unreal.”

Three-pointers by Tate Petersen and Puolrah Gong got the deficit to five points at 42-37 with 9:36 left, and the Eagles rode that momentum to tie the game two minutes later.

Hometown product Traijan Sain, a 6-5 freshman guard from Cedar Rapids, spurred the Eagles into the lead with a thundering dunk and a 3-pointer from the top of the key. Meanwhile, Southwestern went seven minutes without scoring from the field as the Eagles pulled away.

“We talked a lot about pace at halftime,” Sandquist said. “SWCC wants to play the halfcourt game. We’re fine playing a halfcourt game, but we also feel we can get out and run. Being down 17 points, we talked about getting stops defensively and really pushing the pace offensively. It was just effort. We were contesting shots and we were a plus-16 on the glass for the game. That was big, not allowing them any second-chance points.”

Surviving the scare against the sixth-place Spartans, Kirkwood advanced to the semifinals at 5 p.m. Sunday against second-seeded Iowa Lakes. Iowa Lakes rolled past Northeast Community College, 106-86, in an early quarterfinal game Saturday.

Top-seeded DMACC, ranked No. 4 in the nation, defeated Iowa Central 104-83 Saturday and faced fourth-seeded Ellsworth in the 7 p.m. semifinals Sunday. Ellsworth got past Iowa Western in the Saturday nightcap, 94-79.

The highest-remaining seeded team among Sunday’s semifinal winners will host the championship game Thursday.

Meanwhile, Sweany looks ahead to next season after his team finished a 16-15 season and qualifying for the regional quarterfinals. It was an improvement on the 9-21 campaign last year.

“I’m proud of our guys,” Sweany said. “We had a good season, and we hope to build off it. Going over .500 and getting 16 wins was a good start in our first year.”

A Mediacom television crew was on campus for the weekend tournament, with the games shown on its MC22 channel. Among the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference staff administering the tournament was Iowa State University student Cole Strider, an ICCAC intern.

SOUTHWESTERN (49) — Totals — (FG FT PTS) 19 9-19 49. AJ Doctor 6 2-3 14, Bogdan Cret 4 5-7 14, Fatih Huyuk 5 1-5 11, James Braddy 3 0-0 7, Patrick Worrell 1 0-2 2, Andrew Scoggins 0 1-2 1. FG shooting — 19-55 (34.5 percent). 3-point goals — 2-16 (Braddy 1, Cret 1). Rebounds — 27 (Worrell 12, Doctor 6, Cret 5). Assists — 4. Steals — 7 (Doctor 2, Huyuk 2). Blocked shots — 1 (Scoggins 1). Turnovers — 8. Team fouls — 17. Fouled out — None.

KIRKWOOD (57) — Totals — (FG FT PTS) 20 12-19 57. Traijan Sain 5 5-7 16, Ayouba Berthe 5 0-1 10, Puolrah Gong 4 1-1 10, James Spencer 3 2-3 8 Tate Petersen 2 2-2 8, Jacob Runyan 1 0-2 3, Tate Haughenbury 0 2-32 2. FG shooting — 20-61 (32.8 percent). 3-point goals — 5-20 (Petersen 2, Runyan 1, Sain 1, Gong 1). Rebounds — 43 (Sain 10, Spencer 8, Berthe 7). Assists — 7 (Sain 2). Steals — 1 (Runyan 1). Blocked shots — 4. Turnovers — 5. Team fouls — 19. Fouled out — None.