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Lakers too much for Triton men

Photo by Paul DeCoursey Kyle Beisch of Iowa Lakes, a Fort Dodge Senior High graduate, tries to drive around Prince Moss of Iowa Central on Wednesday at Hodges Fieldhouse. For more photos, visit CU at messengernews.net

The Iowa Central men’s basketball team is in a funk, and head coach Dennis Pilcher said he’s not quite sure where to turn.

The Tritons dropped their third straight ICCAC game to start the conference slate, falling to Iowa Lakes by a 92-61 count at Hodges Field House Wednesday night.

Iowa Central trailed from start to finish, and a 15-0 run by the Lakers midway through the first half took any drama out of this one early.

“From the get-go, they out-played us and out-hustled us,” said Pilcher, whose team fell to 8-13 overall. “They did everything twice as well as we did. It’s frustrating.

“We played so many tough teams to start the season, I thought that would make us better, but we are beat down. We just don’t battle. We are just not playing with a lot of confidence right now.”

The schedule doesn’t offer any relief for a struggling squad. Iowa Central travels to No. 17 Kirkwood this Saturday, before taking on top-ranked Southwestern in Creston next Wednesday.

“It’s not going to get any easier. I don’t know what we can do to get it going,” said Pilcher. “We’ll probably make one or two changes Saturday. Robert Hawkins may start. He’ll give us a little pick up. We may switch up our defense a little.”

Fort Dodge Senior High graduate Kyle Beisch led Iowa Lakes (12-5, 2-1) with 21 points. He had 13 in the second half. Cody Cox had 17, all in the first half.

“This was really fun,” said Beisch, who was named national junior college player of the week Wednesday for scoring 58 combined points in two wins last week. “It’s exciting to play back here. I’ve been looking forward to this all week.”

Dennis Joiner added 14 points, Jaylon Tapper 11 and Mitchell Keller 10 for the Lakers.

Prince Moss led the Tritons with 26 points. Tray Croft added 21, but Iowa Central didn’t have anyone else reach double figures.

The Tritons trailed just 16-11 at the 14:31 mark in the first half before Iowa Lakes went on its game-changing run. Joiner had seven points in the run and Cox added six.

Iowa Central finally ended it with a dunk by Kam Swift with 9:22 left in the half.

The closest Iowa Central got in the second half was 19 points at 54-35 with 17:32 to play on the strength of four free throws by Croft.

Iowa Lakes made 38-for-80 shots from the floor — doubling up the Tritons, who were 19-for-56.

Saturday’s game against Kirkwood starts at 3 p,m. In Cedar Rapids. Iowa Central’s next home game is Feb. 4 against Ellsworth.

Iowa Lakes 92, Iowa Central 61

Iowa Lakes – Tywon Bressler 4-7 0-2 8, Cody Cox 8-15 1-2 17, Kyle Beisch 6-13 6-7 21, Mitchell Keller 4-10 2-2 10, Streeter McIllravy 1-3 0-0 2, Jaylon Tapplar 5-7 1-2 11, Dennis Joiner 6-13 0-0, 14, Joe Binyoti 4-8 1-1 9, Josh Conley 0-1 0-0 0, Jed Robinson 0-0 0-0 0, Alex Rogers 0-2 0-0 0, Rod Fuller 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 38-80 11-14 92.

Iowa Central – Kam Swift 3-6 2-2 9, Tray Croft 7-16 6-6 21, Prince Moss 8-16 8-11 26, Ben Hayes 0-6, 0-0 0, David Miller 0-9 1-4 1, Buay Jok 0-0 1-4 1, Robert Hawkins 0-0 0-0 0, Davarea Loggins 0-1 0-0 0, Dylan Burgart 1-1 0-2 3, Noah Stukey 0-1 0-0 0, Christian Cameron 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-56 18-29 62.

Halftime score: Iowa Lakes 50, Iowa Central 29. Three-point goals: Iowa Lakes 5-16 (Beisch 3-4, Bressler 0-2, Binyoti 0-1, Cox 0-3, Joiner 2-4). Iowa Central 5-21 (Swift 1-4, Croft 1-4, Moss 2-4, Hayes 0-5, Miller 0-3, Burgart 1-1). Total fouls: Iowa Lakes 20, Iowa Central 12.

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