Indians open tourney play with sixth straight win

Indians open tourney play with sixth straight win

The McCook Community College men's basketball team opened up Region IX Tournament play Saturday with a convincing win over Lamar Community College 89-64 in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center. The Indians advance to Thursday play at Sterling, Colo., where the remainder of the tournament will be played. They will play the winner of this weekend's game between Western Wyoming or Northwest Wyoming.

MCC got 24-first half points from freshman LeTre Darthard (Denton, Texas) took charge of a tight-game through the first four minutes, applied a trapping defense, and never looked back.

"When we play defense, we're pretty hard to beat," said MCC Coach Kyle Drennan.

MCC took a 51-31 at the half the Indians on the strength of stout defense pressure which forced 12 first-half Lamar turnovers and led to nine MCC steals. When the Runnin' Lopes made it into their offensive zone they shot 46.7 percent through 20 minutes.

The Indians came out and held Lamar to 32 percent in the second half and 40 percent for the game. Lamar turned the ball over 18 times. The Indians came up with 14 defensive steals and held the Lopes to two offensive rebounds in the second half, enjoying a 38-30 rebound edge for the game.

LeTre Darthard finished the game with 35 points, and eight rebounds making 16 of 19 shots from the field. He made the only 3-point shot he took. Sophomore transfer Raheim Sullivan (Toronto, Ontario/Moberly Area Community College) scored 19 points, dished out 10 assists, got seven rebounds and seven steals.

Freshman Catthadious Moore (Memphis, Tenn.) scored 12 points and sophomore transfer Justin Costello (Omaha/U. of Nebraska) scored nine points on a three of seven night from the 3-point line. Sophomore Tyrik Singh (San Juan, Trinidad and Tobago/Daytona State) grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.

"We're really good right now, firing on all cylinders offensively," Drennan said. "LeTre only misses three shots all night, Raheim's three steals or rebounds away from a triple double Cathadious put some points up and Justin was very good. Right now we've got different guys stepping up every night. We're scary to play."
MCC shot 56.9 percent from the field, made six of 17 shots from the 3-point line (35.3 percent) and was nine of 16 from the free-throw line (56.3 percent).

Lamar finishes the season at 14-15.

MCC runs its winning streak to six games and puts its season mark at 15-15 heading into second round tournament play Thursday.

"There's a feeling I think, that people still aren't taking McCook seriously," Drennan said. "I mean this team is like the land of misfit toys. Back in July, none of us had anywhere to go. Everybody who's playing right now had no team back in July. We all got left on the shelf, but you know what? Right now we play as a team, we play the right way."

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't make it to the next MCC home watch it live at: https://mccindians.com/sports/2016/11/10/tw.aspx?tab=tribewatch