Trinidad State men best MCC 87-81

TRINIDAD, Colo. – The Trinidad State College men stepped up their offense in the second half to top McCook Community College 87-81 Saturday.

"This is back-to-back games where we didn't play very well, but credit to Trinidad, they played amazing," said MCC Coach Jacob Brandl. "If you allow a team to shoot 61 percent for the game, you're not going to win many basketball games."

The two-time defending Region IX champions improve to 7-1 at home and are 2-0 to start off the region schedule. In addition to shooting 60.7 percent from the field, the Trojans stepped it up making 64.3 percent of their 28 second-half shots.

"And it was all layups, all at the rim and mid-range jump shots, they didn't even attempt a 3-point shot in the second half," said Brandl. "I was just really disappointed in our defensive effort."

MCC came out strong in the first half and led 17-7 with 10:44 left in the first half and led 44-40 at the half as the lead changed hands 11 times in the game and was tied five times.

"This is an extremely hard place to play and to win a game," said Brandl. "To come out and play flat at times was really disappointing. I thought we came out ready to start but then had some bad runs especially in the second half."

The Indians went up 67-59 at the 10:01 mark of the second half but Trinidad State responded with a 9-0 run. MCC took its last lead with 6:22 remaining at 69-68 and tied the game one final time at the 5:33 mark, 71-71.

MCC shot 43.9 percent from the floor for the game, made seven of 17 first-half three point shots (41.2 percent) then went two-for-12 in the second half to finish at 31 percent for the game. The team made all 14 of its free throws.

"We did do some nice things, like the 10 steals, we ended up getting to the free-throw line in the second half and we only had 12 turnovers compared to 18 the night before," said Brandl.

MCC was outscored 50-30 in the paint and outrebounded 35-23.

"We let some things get us out of our rhythm and didn't run our sets well at all," said Brandl. "We've got to get better in the paint and we can't allow things out of our control to affect us. They were really physical on the ball and used their hands a lot to stop momentum and the officials allowed it but that's basketball and we've got to figure out ways to continue to fight and get better."

Sophomore Martel Evans (Omaha Creighton Prep) led MCC with 20 points. Redshirt freshman Bryan Akanmu (Paris, France) added 19 points and six rebounds. Freshman Louie Tucker (Bristol, England) led the team with seven rebounds and scored 15 points. Zeki Cavli (sophomore Bodrum, Turkey) chipped in 14 points, making four of eight 3-point shots.

"Down the stretch our offensive possessions just weren't good enough to win a basketball game and this was the second game in a row where defensively we got beat in the heart – in the paint, and we've got to get that cleaned up fast," said Brandl.

Trinidad improves to 13-5 and 2-0 in the south region.

MCC falls to 6-10 and 1-1 in region play.

The team returns home Tuesday to face Southeast Community College (2-16 overall and 0-1 in the Nebraska conference) at 7:30 p.m.