Cedar Rapids, IA----A strong start and a bevy of free throws helped #14 Kirkwood to an 80-71 victory over the ICC men's basketball team on Saturday afternoon in Cedar Rapids.  The Cougars overcame an early 17-point deficit behind a career high 33 points from Tony Mabon, Jr, but ICC could not overcome a large free throw disparity as Kirkwood got the win. 

The home team scored a remarkable 40 points from the charity stripe (going a total of 40-49) while the visiting Cougars barely attempted one-fourth of that, going 8-12.  ICC falls to 7-4 overall, while Kirkwood moved to 8-4 on the season.

Kirkwood opened the game in strong fashion to open up a 23-6 lead with 8:20 to play in the first half.  Mabon, Jr. hit a three-pointer to get ICC on track and from there the Cougars outscored the Eagles as Lavell McIntosh and Jacquan Binion also added scoring as ICC trailed 38-27 heading into halftime.

The Cougars turned up the defensive pressure to continue to whittle away at the Eagle lead.  Binion got a steal and a layup to make the score 40-35 and then Mabon heated up, scoring on a variety of long-range bombs and step-back jumpers to draw ICC to within 47-44.  Kirkwood got into the bonus early but the Cougars kept chipping away, trading field goals for freebies to cut the deficit to 51-50 and then 52-51, but could never totally get over the hump to ever grab the lead.

Tony Owens, Jr got in on the scoring to keep ICC close at 55-53, but Kirkwood answered with a three-pointer to make it 58-53.  Kyle Hawthorne answered with a basket to draw ICC to 58-57 with 8:06 to play, but that was as close as ICC could get as the Eagles did just enough to keep the lead to pull away and get the win.  

Stat leaders:
Tony Mabon, Jr - 33 pts, 8 reb
Lavell McIntosh - 9 pts, 5 reb
Judd Swanton - 5 reb, 3 asts, 3 blks
Tony Owens 7 pts

Next up:  The Cougars will break for Christmas and return to action in the Sunshine State, playing next on Wednesday, December 29 vs. Florida Southwestern State at 6 pm in Fort Myers, FL.  Livestream will be available at:  https://www.fswbucs.com/FSWBucsLive.