The Communique

Issue date: 1/20/05 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Cameron Williams Jovon McGraw fights for a rebound with an Iowa Central opponent.

Kirkwood Community College's Men's Basketball team showed how a good defense can win a game when they met Iowa Central Community College. The Eagles met the Tritons on Jan. 15 at Johnson Hall and although the Eagles were behind at the end of the first period they came back with a solid plan and dominated the rest of the game.
The Tritons struck blood first and the Eagles were not able to answer until Iowa Central had already scored seven points. The game began with quick runs up and down the court with a lot of turnovers and errors. The Tritons were dominating the game by shooting around Kirkwood's loose defense and lack of shooting accuracy. With 10:25 left in the first period Iowa Central called their first time-out and Doug Wagemester, KCC's head men's basketball coach, took advantage of the time to stress the importance of tightening up their defense.
With nine minutes left of playtime, the Eagles had closed the margin of Iowa Central's lead to three points but KCC was still missing shots and letting ICCC rebound. Slowly the Eagles closed the gap by playing a tight man-on-man defense and making crucial free throws.
When the Eagles called a time-out with only 5:08 left in the first period they had managed to tie the game at 26 points. After, the Eagles came out with the same tight man defense and taking more time shooting and passing to find an open shot. At the end of the first period the Tritons had the lead at 34 to 33.
The Eagles did a good job fixing their defense to stop ICCC from scoring but had trouble scoring themselves for the entire first period.
After halftime the Eagles came out looking strong and they continued to stick with their game plan of tight man defense. Although ICCC did a good job of keeping the Eagles outside of the arch Kirkwood was scoring points by breaking in the arch, or shooting trifecta's. With their tight defense, Iowa Central was missing shots while KCC was picking up the pieces. After five minutes of play in the second period Kirkwood had taken the lead at 42 to 36 but was still having problems shooting outside of the arch.
With 11:36 minutes left of playtime in the game KCC took a time-out where Wagemester must have stressed the importance of breaking in the arch. The Eagles had widened the margin at 54 to 43. KCC continued to widen the gap until Iowa Central called a time-out with 3:57 left in the game. After their time-out the Tritons tightened their defense keeping KCC outside of the arch. The Tritons fought back but it was too little too late. Iowa Central did an excellent job of coming back only to lose by nine points. The Eagles sealed off an impressive 71 to 62 win.

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