Three MCC players tabbed for post-season hoops honors
Three McCook Community College men's basketball players have earned post-season awards for Region IX and for the Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference.
Sophomores Julian Lual, Damien Perry and Ezichi Kalu all garnered honors for both Region IX and the NCCAC.
Julian Lual, a 6-7 forward from Calgary, Alberta, was a second-team pick for the Region IX South Sub Region, and all-NCCAC.
Lual led MCC scoring 14.1 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. He shot 43.0 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from the 3-point line and 78.2 from the free-throw line to go along with 47 steals, 52 assists and 32 blocked shots.
For the season, he reached double-digits 24 times in scoring, 15 times in rebounding and had 15 double-doubles. He scored a season-high 31 points Nov. 20 against North Central Missouri College.
For his two years at MCC he scored 676 points and pulled down 420 rebounds.
Damien Perry, a 5-0 point guard from (Wareham, Mass.) transferred to MCC last year after spending his first year at Laramie County Community College. He was named to the all-NCCAC team and honorable mention for the Region IX team. He scored 12.5 points, 3.4 assists and 3.6 rebounds per game from the point-guard position. He shot 39.6 percent from the field, made 33.3 percent of his 3-point shots and was a 61.2 percent shooter from the free-throw line.
He finished the year with back-to-back season-high 26-point performances in the first two rounds of the Region IX tournament in a win over North Platte Feb. 26 and at Laramie County March 3. He reached double-digits in scoring 19 times in the season and topped the 20-point mark six times. He had four six-assist games during the season.
Last season Perry averaged 13.9 points, 3.9 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game. For his career, he scored 671 points, had 183 assists, 178 rebounds and 76 steals.
Ezichi Kalu, a 6-11 post from Lagos, Nigeria, did not see action for MCC until the final game of the first semester and was named all NCCAC, and an honorable-mention on the Region IX team.
He came on to start 15 games and played in 17, averaging 9.4 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, shooting 53.6 percent from the field and was a 68.6 percent shooter from the free-throw line
He scored in double-figures six times with a season-best 17 points in a 78-76 win over Southeast CC on Feb. 8.
Kalu had four games where he had double-digit rebounds and had two double-doubles and had a season-best 12 rebounds in his final game of the season against Lamar. He scored 159 points, had 123 rebounds and 29 blocked shots this season.
REGION IX SOUTH SUB-REGION TEAM
FIRST TEAM: AC Curry, Otero; German Plotnikov, North Platte; Dejour Reeves, Trinidad State
SECOND TEAM: Khalil Haywood, Lamar; Kevon Wiggins, Lamar; Julian Lual, McCook
THIRD TEAM: Hunter Madden, Otero; Obi Ogbim, Northeastern; TK Koang, Western Neb.
HONORABLE MENTION: Dylan West, Trinidad; Timur Krupalija, North Platte; Ezichi Kalu, McCook; Damien Perry, McCook; Kris Cook, Lamar; Jared Adams, Northeastern.
COACH OF THE YEAR: Ted Crass, Otero
NEBRASKA COMMUNITY COLLEGE ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
2021-2022 All-Conference Team
Central CC: Kevin Cook, Dwight Glover
McCook CC: Julian Lual, Damien Perry
North Platte CC: Nico Felici, Timur Krupalija, German Plotnikov
Southeast CC: Much Biel, Trey Hepburn, Luke Williams
Honorable Mention: Caleb Muia, Central CC; Ezichi Kalu McCook CC
Coach-of-the Year: Kevin O'Connor, North Platte