The Wabash Valley College Warriors faithful went home happy Saturday night as their favorite junior college basketball team defeated the Lincoln Trail College Statesman, 89-79, in the annual Homecoming game.

The final score wasn't that close, or so felt Warriors Head Coach Dan Sparks.

"We ended up 10 points on the board, but it wasn't a 10-point game. I think it was more a 16- , 17- or 18-point game. We let them have some easy buckets right there at the end," he said.

After a see-saw first half during which the Warriors led by as many as six but trailed by as many as four, the WVC club took a 35-33 lead into the halftime lockerroom. They had pressed the Statesmen some early in the game, but pulled the press off. However, as the second half opened, the Warriors ratcheted up their defense by applying that full-court diamond-and-one press again.

Cornelius Walker stole the ball and went for a slam dunk. Cornelius Chatt pulled up on a fast break and hit a 10-footer.

LTC called time, but when play resumed, Desmond Holloway dropped in a three-pointer, and with just 2:10 gone in the second half the Warriors were up by nine, 42-33.

The Statesmen never got closeer than five after that. The last time the visitors were within single digits of WVC came with about 4.5 minutes to play as Aaron Weeden went coast-to-coast for a layup.

Walker, however, hit a layup, Josh Lockett hit from in close, and Andre Miller dropped in a trey. WVC's biggest lead was 89-72 when Holloway scored on a fast break slam dunk with 49.8 seconds remaining.

"I thought the first half we struggled a little bit," said Coach Sparks. "We started out slow, we missed easy shots, had an opportunity to build a lead the first four or five minutes. We didn't capitalize on that. Defensively, we had some lapses where we let them score."

In the first half the Warriors were 13 of 32 for 40.6 percent from the field. Lincoln Trail was 13 of 25, 52 percent. The Statesmen hit 33.3 percent from three-point range, one of three, but the Warriors dropped in three trey's out of 11 attempts for 27.3 percent.

Both teams hit six free throws in the first 20 minutes with LTC shooting eight for 75 percent and the Warriors 10 for 60 percent.

But WVC had forced LTC into 10 turnovers, and has six steals to go with that.

In the second half, WVC hit 20 of 33 from the field, 60.6 percent, while LTC hit 50 percent, 15 of 30. WVC also dropped in twice as many trey's as LTC, four of 11 for 36.4 percent as compared to two of seven, 28.6 percent.

Overall, WVC hit 33 of 65 from the field, 50.8 percent, and seven of 22 from three-point range, 31.8 percent. They were 16 of 26 at the line, 61.5 percent.

LTC was 28 of 55 overall for 50.9 percent but three of 10 from three-point range, 30 percent. They were, however, 20 of 28 at the line for 71.4 percent.

Jared Maners led WVC with 16 while Holloway, Chatt and Miller each had 14. Gerardo Suero added 11.

LTC was led by Weeden with 25 and Squires with 22. Anthony Griffis added 13 and Darrel Jackson 10.

By game's end LTC had turned it over 21 times, three times as many as WVC. The Warriors also had 16 steals to LTC's three.

BOX SCORE

Lincoln Trail: Ransom, 0-0-0--0; Weeden, 9-1-4--25; Jackson, 2-1-3--10; Griffis, 4-0-5--13; Wills, 2-0-0--4; Anderson, 0-0-0--0; Kelso, 1-0-0--2; Chappell, 0-0-0--0; Squires, 7-0-8--22; Brimberry, 0-1-0--3; Shane, 0-0-0--0; Totals, 25-3-20--79

Wabash Valley: Maners, 5-2-0--16; Chatt, 5-0-4--14; Miller, 4-2-0--14; Holloway, 5-1-1--14; Walker, 0-0-3--3; Landry, 0-0-0--0; Wickware, 0-1-5--8; Odum, 0-0-0--0; Lewis, 0-0-0--0; Suero, 4-0-3--11; Smith, 0-0-0--0; Lockett, 2-0-0--4; Duncan, 1-1-0--5; Totals, 26-7-16--89

Fouled out: WVC - Lockett

Technical foul: LTC - Jackson; WVC - Walker