Indians blitz Lancers to advance in tourney
The McCook Community College men’s basketball team was hitting on all cylinders Saturday offensively and defensively in a 103-70 win over Eastern Wyoming in the opening round of the Region IX tournament. The win came in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center
“I’m really proud of our guys today. We had four or five days to prepare for this game and our coaches did a really good job of preparing. We hit it really hard and I think it showed today,” said MCC Coach Dillon Hargrove.
Eastern Wyoming never led in the game and MCC went up by 24 points in the first half and were never pressed in the second half. The Indians shot 59.7 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes and canned nine of 18 shots from the 3-point line, forced eight turnovers and had five steals while getting a 21-14 rebound advantage.
“Eastern Wyoming hit some shots early and it really didn’t phase us and we kept it to the scouting report and our guys played it to a T,” said Hargrove. “Our guys went out they executed in half court, they executed in transition.
Six Indians scored in double-figures, led by 20 points from freshman Djibril Diawara (Aulnay-sous-Bois, France), 16 points from sophomore Nate Coley (Little Rock, Ark.) and 13 points from sophomore Luke Sinisa (Auckland, North Island New Zealand). Diawara made five of 10 shots from the 3-point line, Coley made seven of 10 shots from the field, led the Indians with eight assists and snatched six rebounds. Sinisa scored nine of his points in the second half and grabbed six boards.
Sophomore Vladimir Brkovic (Uzice, Serbia) made two of five triples and had 12 points. Freshman Isayah Pankey (freshman, Dallas, Texas) scored 12 points and had five boards. Sophomore Mo Diao (Darkar, Senegal) came off the bench to score 12 points on a four-for-five shooting night with four rebounds.
“Our starters played really well,” said Hargrove. “It was good to see Luke have a good game and a strong return by Mo Diao coming back from an injury and going four-for-five,” said Hargrove.
Sophomore Lukas Gudavicius (Palanga, Lithuania) led MCC with eight rebounds and had seven points. The Indians finished with a 43-37 edge on the glass.
Alier Alier (redshirt freshman, Bor, South Sudan) had also missed the previous two games because of injury but was able to get back on the court for four minutes and scored four points with two rebounds.
“Alier was on a minutes restriction today, and we wanted to get him on the floor before Thursday and he looked good in his time out there today,” said Hargrove.
Eastern Wyoming shot 37.7 percent from the field, made 11 of 29 triples (37.9 percent) and went seven for 10 from the free-throw line.
MCC finished the game shooting 53.3 percent from the floor, made 10 of 28 from distance (35.7) and went 13 of 19 from the free-throw line (68.4 percent) with 14 assists and seven steals.
“Overall, the guys shared the ball and played selfless and had some good numbers today with some good leadership,” aid Hargrove.
Eastern Wyoming finished the year at 7-24.
MCC improves to 18-13 overall and they will take on the north’s top seed in Laramie County Community College (9-3 in the north and 16-11 overall). That game will be played at 3 p.m. Thursday along with all the rest of the Region IX tournament games Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Sterling, Colo.
"Now we've got to prepare for a really good, Laramie team," said Hargrove.
Up-to-date information about MCC men’s basketball including livestream links for home games, schedule, statistics, rosters, photos and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com