Western Nebraska overcomes late deficit to down MCC men 75-71.

The McCook Community College men came back from 11-points down at the half to take a 68-64 lead with 2:25 left in the game before Western Nebraska closed out the game with a 75-71 win Friday at the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.

MCC trailed at the half 38-27.

"This one really stings for the simple fact that a bad first half beat us," said MCC Coach Jacob Brandl.

MCC made just eight of 32 first-half shots (25 percent) while the Cougars made 15 of 30 field goals (50 percent).

"We were really good in the second half, but even late mistakes really hurt," said Brandl. "You're up by four points and at the free-throw line. You don't make the free throws to put it away and we didn't execute."

Western Nebraska outscored MCC 11-3 over the final 2:25 of the game.

Credit to our guys, we played hard and really battled," Brandl said. "We had a lot of guys do a lot of good things," Brandl said citing the efforts of sophomore Simon Akena (Stockholm, Sweden), freshman Noah Boyed (Castries, St. Lucia) and sophomore Madit Lueeth (Edmonton Alberta).

Akena led MCC with 19 points making six of 12 shots, including a pair of 3-pointers. Boyed was six of 13 from the field, scoring 15 points and pulling down a game-high 12 rebounds. Lueeth scored 11 points and led the team with three 3-pointers and freshman Zeki Cavli (Bodrum, Turkey) scored eight points.

"We got a lot of good minutes from a lot of guys, we just came up short and it's disappointing," Brandl said.

MCC shot 39 percent from the field, made eight of 27 shots from beyond the 3-point line (29.6 percent) and went 17 of 27 from the line (63 percent). Both teams were credited with 34 rebounds and MCC turned the ball over 15 times.

"That sounds like a lot, but we'd been averaging 20 a game so that was a step in the right direction" Brandl said. "The effort was there tonight, I'm proud of the guys, we just have to start executing down the stretch."

Men goes to 5-13. Western goes to 10-7 on the season.

On Tuesday MCC travels to North Plate for a 7 p.m. with the Knights.

"We have a short turnaround again and we're on the road for the rivalry game we just need to start making some plays and win these close ones," said Brandl.

Mid-Plains Community Colleges will be doing a promotion for the North Platte games. Stocking hats embroidered with the MCC logo will be available for the first 25 fans to attend Tuesday's doubleheader.

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