MCC men upset NJC to move on in tourney

STERLING, Colo. – The sixth-seeded McCook Community College men upset third-seeded Northeastern Junior College on the road to open Region IX tournament play Saturday. MCC won 78-76.

"This was a great game for us and our guys," said MCC Coach Jacob Brandl. "I'm so proud of our attention to detail today and our fight. Those two areas have been lacking recently and the guys put together a great week of practice and were really locked in today."

The game was tied at 76 with 5.3 seconds left in the game. MCC inbounded the ball and went the full length of the court as sophomore Ty Foster (Bronx, N.Y.) hit a layup with less that 1.0 second left on the clock. After a timeout, NJC was unable to get a shot off as time expired.

"So many guys did good things today. Just super proud of our approach and staying with it and handling their runs," said Brandl. "In the end our sophomores Martel (Evans) and Ty (Foster) made winning plays. At the end of the day that's what it came down to."

Evans, the sophomore from Omaha Creighton Prep put MCC up 70-69 with 3:33 left in the game and went four-for-four at the line over the final 3:33 with an offensive rebound, a defensive rebound and a layup with 17 seconds left to put MCC up 76-74.

Foster and Evans combined for 44 points and 11 rebounds.

The two teams, who split their season series winning at home, battled throughout the game with neither team able to go on scoring runs. MCC took its largest lead of the game, 25-20, with 6:31 left in the first half. The Indians held a 29-28 lead with 2:19 left before intermission and stretched the lead to 34-31 at halftime.

MCC held its second five-point lead of the game 46-41 with 14:19 left in the game but NJC went on its best run of the game and outscored MCC 16-4 over a five-minute span to lead 57-50 with 9:30 left in the game. The score was tied 13 times with the lead changing hands 13 times.

"In the second half we took good care of the ball and I thought really put together some of our best possessions of the year," said Brandl.

After turning the ball over nine times in the first half, the Indians had just three in the second half.

MCC shot 46.6 percent from the field for the game, making eight of 24 shots from beyond the 3-point arc (33.3 percent). From the line the Indians went 16-for-18 (86.7 percent). All but three of those shots and makes came in the second half.

NJC shot 39.4 percent from the field, made six of 24 3-pointers (25 percent) and went 18 of 28 at the line (64.3 percent).

The Plainsmen outrebounded MCC 39-32 but came up with 15 on the offensive end.

"15 offensive rebounds is still way to many but there were about five of those that were really tough breaks for us with our own guys knocking it away from us and them coming up with it," said Brandl.

Evans scored 19 of his game-high 26 points in the second half. He made all 12 of his free-throw attempts in the game and finished with four rebounds and three steals. Foster scored 18 points with seven assists and seven boards. Freshman Bryan Akanmu (Paris, France) scored 11 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Sophomore Brandon Kabuya Mpoyi (Paris, France) had five rebounds and seven points off the bench.

NJC ends their season at 14-14.

MCC goes to 11-20 on the season and moves on to the second round of the Region IX tournament in Scottsbluff. The Indians will take on the top seed from the Region IX North division, Gillette College (26-4).

"We couldn't go 4-0 in this tournament without going 1-0 first," said Brandl. "So the message, is to stay hungry because why not us?"

The south's top seed Western Nebraska (22-8)) will host fourth-seeded Northwest College (14-17). In other games No. 2 Casper (23-8) from the north will play Otero (14-16) , the third seed in the south. The other game will be the south's second seed Trinidad State (22-8) playing Laramie County (17-14), the third seed from the south.

Game times are expected to be announced Monday.






REGION IX POST SEASON TOURNAMENT






SATURDAY'S FIRST-ROUND GAMES (South)


McCook CC 78, at Northeastern Junior College 76 (at Sterling, Colo.)


Trinidad State 88, Lamar 70 (at Trinidad, Colo.)


Otero JC 91, North Platte 87 (OT) - (at La Junta, Colo.)






SATURDAY'S FIRST-ROUND GAMES (North)


Northwest College 97, Central Wyoming 93 (at Riverton, Wyo.)


Laramie County CC 90, Western Wyoming 81 (at Cheyenne, Wyo.)


Casper College 114, Eastern Wyoming 94 (at Casper, Wyo.)






NEXT ROUNDS at Scottsbluff Thursday-Saturday



THURSDAY'S GAMES


McCook CC (11-20) vs Gillette College, (26-4)


Western Nebraska (22-8) vs. Northwest College (14-17)


Otero JC (14-16) vs. Casper College (23-8)


Trinidad State (22-8) vs. Laramie County CC (17-14)