MCC men down Colorado Northwestern in Idaho tournament

TWIN FALLS, Idaho — The McCook Community College men beat Colorado Northwestern Community College 79-67 Friday in the opening game of the Idaho Central Credit Union Invitational. These games are hosted by the College of Southern Idaho.

"This was a game of two halves," said MCC Coach Jacob Brandl. "I thought we came out completely flat and honestly looked like we didn't want to be there."

MCC trailed 36-32 at the half before enjoying a 22-point turnaround in the first 15 minutes of the second half.

"Martel Evans just carried us in the first half before his injury," Brandl said.

Evans, the freshman from Omaha Creighton Prep, led MCC with 12 first-half points before leaving the game late in the half with an injury.

"The second half was a different story. We were aggressive on both ends and our defense really stepped up and cut out angles and easy plays at the rim," said Brandl.

Freshman Zeki Cavli (Bodrum, Turkey) came off the bench and made seven of 12 shots from beyond the 3-point-line to led MCC with his 21 points

"Offensively Zeki really got it going and it was good to see his confidence continue to build as the game went on," said Brandl.

William Humer (freshman, Sollentuna, Sweden) chipped in 14 points and grabbed a team-best 16 rebounds

Sophomore Simon Akena (Stockholm, Sweden) scored 13 points. Freshman Noah Boyed (Castries, St. Lucia) had 12 rebounds, four blocked shots and six points. Sophomore Lamine Ndione, (Marseille, France) picked up nine rebounds with seven points.

MCC shot 40 percent from the field for the game, 37.9 percent from the 3-point line (11-for-29), and 61.5 percent on eight of 13 free throws. MCC outrebounded the Spartans 60-28, including 21 on the offense end, but MCC had 22 turnovers.

"Going in, I thought we would have an advantage on the boards and that turned out to be true as we just dominated in that area, but the turnovers were really disappointing," said Brandl. "We got up 18 and went into coast mode and went back to being sloppy with the ball and turnovers kept them in the game."

CNCC shot 40.3 percent for the game, 30 percent on nine of 30 attempts from distance and 40 percent on 10 free throw tries.

Colorado Northwestern CC falls to 1-7 on the season.

MCC goes to 4-6 and on Saturday will play CSI, the host school, which is 8-0 and ranked No. 5 in this week's National Junior College Athletic Association Top 25 Rankings.

"Tomorrow is going to be a huge challenge playing the No. 5 team in the country at their place in the second game of a classic is challenging enough but to play with only seven healthy players tomorrow is going to be a huge challenge and we will see how we respond and how tough our guys are," Brandl said.

MCC will play its final home games of the semester Dec. 2-3. On Friday the men host Laramie County Community College at 7:30 p.m. and on Saturday play Eastern Wyoming at 4 p.m.

For all the up-to-date information on MCC basketball this season and all sports including schedules, statistics, rosters and photos, please visit the official website of MCC Athletics at mccindians.com