Indians debut at home with 82-66 win over Eagles

Indians debut at home with 82-66 win over Eagles

The McCook Community College men's basketball team made their home debut with an explosive first half propelling them to an 82-66 win over Laramie County Community College Friday in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.

"I told them all week this was a team that we wanted to come out and punch them in the face and that our goal was to get them to call a time out in the first five minutes," said MCC Coach Kyle Drennan, who was making his home debut as Indian Coach. "And we did that getting up 12-2."

MCC made nine of 14 shots in the first half from the 3-point line (64.3 percent) and 19 of 32 shots overall (59.4 percent.) Freshman LeTre Darthard (Denton, Texas) led the long-distance assault canning all five of his 3-point attempts and 20-first half points.

"You look at that first half, the ball was moving, we were making assists, we were taking care of the ball, we were guarding, we were rebounding," Drennan said. "We did everything right, and it showed."

MCC went up 48-25 at the half.

Drennan said he told his team at halftime that other team was getting their butts chewed and that his guys would have to weather the storm. "The goal again was to get them to call a timeout in the first five minutes and that didn't happen," Drennan said.

After committing just four first-half turnovers MCC turned the ball over 12 times. The Indians gave up just two offensive rebounds in the first half but six in the second half. The shooting fell off to 46.4 percent but MCC made just one of seven 3-point shots.

"You kind of saw in the second half, we are a young team," Drennan said. "You have to understand you need to put the other team away when you have the opportunity, we let them hang around, we kind of thought we had already done something, got loosey-goosey and had a bunch of turnovers."
Darthard finished with a team-high 25 points to go along with 10 rebounds.

Sophomore Tyrik Singh (San Juan, Trinidad and Tobago/Daytona State) came off the bench to score 17 points and nab a team-high 11 rebounds

The Indians got 11 points each from sophomore transfer guards, Justin Costello (Omaha) and Raheim Sullivan (Toronto, Ontario). Costello had six rebounds and Sullivan five.

MCC finished with a 53.3 percent shooting night and 47.6 percent on 21 shots from the 3-point line. The Indians out-rebounded the Eagles 49-31 but made just eight of 17 free throws (47.1 percent).

Laramie County was 37.3 percent from the field, seven of 28 (25 percent) from distance and nine of 19 from the line (47.4 percent)

"It was a win we had to have. We needed it," Drennan said.

MCC goes to 2-2 on the year and will take on Eastern Wyoming Saturday at 4 p.m. for Veteran's Appreciation Day. All active duty and military Veterans and their spouses will be admitted for free and are invited to watch the games from the VIP room where refreshments will be served. All fans are encouraged to wear red white and blue gear to honor Veterans.

For more information on MCC basketball and all MCC sports, visit the official site of MCC Athletics at https://mccindians.com/index.aspx?path=mbball

For more photos from tonight's game please visit the McCook Community College Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/MPCCMcCook/

If you can not make it to the games watch MCC basketball home games at https://mccindians.com/sports/2016/11/10/tw.aspx?tab=tribewatch