By Scott A. Kolb

Post-Bulletin, Austin MN 

MASON CITY, Iowa -- The Riverland men's basketball team held a halftime lead on Tuesday night against North Iowa Area Community College and nearly pulled off an upset on the road.

It was a one possession game in the closing seconds, when the visiting Riverland Blue Devils got the chance to tie or take the lead. The visitors got a good look, but the ball bounced around and the home team then closed it out from the free throw line for a 73-68 win.

"We had a good look on our last possession and the ball rimmed out," Riverland coach Dan Swift said. "We played a competitive game against a very good and physically talented team, so I'm happy with the effort. We just have to take care of the little things like making free throws."

In a tight game, the Blue Devils left points at the free throw line. Riverland shot only 50-percent from the charity stripe in the loss. NIACC had 10 more points at the free throw line and that was the difference in the non-conference game.

"We held a one-point lead at halftime and we played well in the first half," Swift said. "We didn't shoot very well from the outside, but it still wasn't a bad number on offense. We had the answer for most of their runs."

Derek Hahn led the way for the Blue Devils with 16 points, including four treys. AJ Kortz, Khirey Floyd, and Josh Davis were also in double figures for Riverland.

Despite the setback on the road which kept them winless on the season, the Blue Devils had plenty of positives in their trip south of the state line. A big statistic was collecting 46 rebounds against a much bigger team.

"This was an extremely physical game and they have some big guys who can pound it inside," Swift concluded. "It was nice to see our guys work hard down low and for us to have eight more rebounds was huge. If we can starting hitting more free throws, then we can win some of these close games."

Riverland (0-3) has its alumni game and hall-of-fame induction on Saturday, then plays Luther College JV in the late game on Monday night.

RIVERLAND (68)

Derek Hahn 16, AJ Kortz 13, Khirey Floyd 13, Josh Davis 11, Brian Voigt 7, Richard Burch 4, Taylor Oetken 2, Jared Matson 2.

NIACC (73)

Kjay Jackson 17, Harri Harvey 13, Jerel Jernigan 8, Lemar Anderson 8, Nick Stromer 7, DeAaron Hearn 4, Ryan Anderson 4, Andre Garth 4, Bilal Davis 4, Juston Meier 2, Dylan Alitz 2.

Halftime -- Riverland 33, NIACC 32.

Three-pointers -- Riverland 6-20 (Hahn 4, Kortz 1, Floyd 1). NIACC 3-21 (Harvey 1, Jernigan 1, R.Anderson 1).

Free throws -- Riverland 12-24, NIACC 22-34.

Rebounds -- Riverland 46 (Oetken 10); NIACC 38.

Turnovers -- Riverland 22, NIACC 11.

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