Eagles soaring into postseason

The IVCC men’s basketball team heads into the postseason riding a wave of momentum that began Feb. 27 with an 89-73 home victory over a Kishwaukee team that, at the time, was ranked seventh in the country.

The potential of the Eagles was really on display that night as they handled a nationally recognized team with lockdown defense and consistent offense. IVCC big man Torrance Johnson got into foul trouble early yet the Eagles managed to take a 36-30 lead into halftime. Jens Soderholm had ice water in his veins as he went 5-8 from long range, contributing 23 points for the Eagles. It was truly a team effort though as sophomores Tyree Coe and Torrance Johnson added 20 and 17 points respectively.

The Eagles took the momentum of that win with them into the next game Feb. 19 at Highland Community College. Torrance Johnson, nicknamed the “Silent Assassin”, would live up to that name by racking up another double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds, including the game winning put-back with seven-tenths of a second left in the game.

On the heels of these two wins the team heads into postseason play as a number 7 seed and will play at Morton Community College in Cicero at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26 in Region 4 quarterfinal action.

The Eagles are 14-16 overall and finished 5-7 in the Arrowhead Conference. IVCC is seeded seventh in District A while Morton is the two seed in District B. The Eagles defeated Morton 79-77 at IVCC Jan. 10.