Men's basketball: IVCC bounces back, wins playoff game
By John Baracani
After battling back from a seven game losing streak and finishing the regular season with a 11-19 record, the Apaches looked to turn around their poor final month of the regular season as they entered the Region IV Division II Tournament as the eighth seed.
The Apaches, who finished the season in fourth place in the Arrowhead Conference with a 5-7 conference mark, hosted ninth seed McHenry County College on February 22.
After taking a 36-32 cushion into halftime, the Apaches, led by Sandro Tovalin's 22 points and 12 rebounds at the center position and guard Roosevelt Shegog's 21 and 9, respectively, went on to defeat McHenry 87-79.
Coach Mike Riley was happy with the play of his team, in particular, his two big men in the middle, Tovalin and Charlie Eckhoff, who also chipped in 18 points and 8 rebounds.
"We got the good, aggressive games that we needed from our big men," Riley said. "We played really well; we did some positive things," he said. "We started out struggling, but we came together and played better."
Though the head coach wasn't at all surprised that his team came out and played so well in victory, he admitted to be surprised by the team's rebounding performance. The Apaches out rebounded McHenry 53-34.
"We did a great job on the boards against a real big team," he said.
Another bright spot in the game for Riley was that his club had just 11 turnovers in the game, something that was a problem during the team's long winless streak.
"During the losing streak, we were giving up 20-25 turnovers a game," he said. "You can't win with 20-25 turnovers, it just kills you."
Fresh off the heels of their first regional victory, the Apaches traveled to Highland College on February 26 to face the tournament's number one seed, Moraine Valley.
IVCC again took a six point lead into halftime, and looked to be on their way to pulling off an upset of the number one team, but the tables soon turned on Rileys team.
According to Riley, although he wasn't making excuses for the loss, the lack of some calls by the officials cost his team the victory.
It was really disappointing because we played so well and we did everything we wanted to do," he said. "I felt that we outplayed them, but we didn't get the calls we needed when we needed them.
IVCC out shot their opponent 53% to 51%, but gave up 15 offensive rebounds.
Riley gave Moraine Valley credit for the win , but feels his team is just as good, if not better.
"They are a good team, they made some plays, hit some big shots, but some no calls just killed us," he said. "They had a softer schedule than us, so they had more wins."
After the game, Moraine Valley's coach apologized to Riley for the game's questionable officiating, telling the IVCC head coach that the Apaches deserved the win.
"They (the officials) protected the number one seed," Riley said.
Leading the way offensively for the Apaches were Eckhoff with 19 points, Craig Olson with 13, and Ryan Anderes with 11.
Riley said that he is happy with the direction the team appears to be headed, after doubling last season's total of six wins, which he expected to do from the beginning.
"We did some great things this year," he said. " I expected 12-15 wins this season. We are taking the program in the right direction."