MCC men pull out tight game over Eastern Wyoming, 77-74

The McCook Community College men pulled out a tight game Saturday in the final minute of play to down Eastern Wyoming 77-74 in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.

In a game that was close at the half, 39-36 in favor of MCC, the two teams exchanged leads 13 times in the game with the score tied 10 times.

The Lancers cut the MCC lead to 75-73 with 16.7 seconds left but MCC responded by busting the Eastern Wyoming press and went the length of the court for a dunk by Lamine Ndione, (Marseille, France) for the final points of the game.

"This was one of those games that was just a YMCA game, with all the open shots, but we had some guys step up and make some shots, which was awesome," said MCC Coach Jacob Brandl.

MCC took 42 shots from the 3-point line and made 10. EWC took 25 shots and made seven.

"Credit to our guys, we battled, we might have set a record shooting those 42 threes, but we were open, and I like our guys' confidence to be able to shoot it," Brandl said.

Simon Akena (Stockholm, Sweden), a sophomore transfer from Three Rivers College, was five of 12 from the arc and sophomore Cameron Nyarko (London, England) made four of 12. Akena led MCC with 25 points and 10 rebounds. Nyarko finished with 12 points.

"We needed a guy like Simon to get his shot going and that was big," Brandl said. "We had a lot of guys do a lot of things for us."

In the post, freshman Noah Boyed (Castries, St. Lucia) scored 13 points and had nine rebounds. Ndione, a sophomore transfer from Lee College scored 14 points and had seven rebounds and freshman William Humer, (Sollentuna, Sweden) scored six points and had eight boards.

MCC shot 41.2 percent from the field, 23.8 percent from the 3-point line and 11 of 16 from the charity stripe.

MCC was able to stretch the three-point lead at the half to 11 points with 12:17 remaining.

"We get up 11 with 12 minutes left and started turning the ball over again, and that got them back in the game," Brandl said, "And they ended up going up by one and we found ourselves in a game again. We have to put people away right there."

MCC finished the game with 19 turnovers.

After Eastern Wyoming shot 46.4 percent in the first half, the Lancers cooled off to 33.3 percent in the second half and 38.6 percent for the game. EWC shot 28 percent from the 3-point line on 25 shots and 13 of 14 from the line (92.9 percent).

"We got our defense cleaned up in the second half and held them to 33 percent, which was big," said Brandl.

MCC outrebounded EWC 45-36 and forced 13 turnovers.

"We hadn't put a full game together as far as two halves and being tough and playing disciplined and we didn't do it tonight, but it was a step in the right direction." Brandl said. "I was really proud of our response."

Eastern Wyoming goes to 4-8 on the year.

MCC improves to 5-8 and will wrap up the semester with a pair of games in Sterling, Colo. in the Northeastern Junior College tournament Friday and Saturday Dec. 9-10. MCC plays Western Wyoming at 2 p.m. Friday and takes on Central Wyoming at noon on Saturday.

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