MCC men down Lamar 101-90 at home

The McCook Community College men’s basketball stopped a two-game losing streak in the region and topped third-place Lamar Community College 101-90 Wednesday at the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.

“This was a massive win for our team tonight,” said MCC Coach Dillon Hargrove. “We haven’t been playing very well lately, and we talked about it before the game – we wanted the win, but we needed this win.”

The two teams stayed within six points of each other in the first half as Lamar led at intermission 47-46. MCC made 10 of 16 shots from beyond the 3-point line (62.5 percent) in the first 20 minutes of the game.

After the Runnin’ Lopes went up by eight points just 56 seconds into the second half MCC responded and outscored Lamar 55-43 in the second half, shooting 63 percent from the field and 44 percent from distance over the final 20 minutes of the game.

“I’m proud of all the guys. We played well offensively,” said Hargrove. “Lamar is a very good team and they are hard to guard. We made some adjustments at halftime and our guys listened then went and executed.”

Freshman Djibril Diawara (freshman, Aulnay-sous-Bois, France) led MCC with 36 points. He made six of nine shots from the 3-point line in the first half, as part of his 22-point first-half effort and finished making 13 of 22 total shots and seven-for-12 from distance.

“He shot it in tonight and came to play and it started early,” said Hargrove.

Sophomore Vladimir Brkovic (Uzice, Serbia) came off the bench to charged up his team with nine points, making three of four shots, and one of two shots from long distance.

“Vladimir played his heart out tonight,” said Hargrove. “And that energy is something we’ve been missing and he brought it tonight.”

Redshirt freshman Alier Alier (Bor, South Sudan) made eight of 12 shots from the field and two of four triples for 20 points and six rebounds.

Sophomore Mo Diao (Darkar, Senegal) started the game making four of eight shots from the field but went to the bench with an injury after playing just two minutes in the second half. He finished with 10 points, three rebounds and three blocked shots.

“Mo went down with an injury but played very efficiently for us and Nate Coley scored 11 points in 15 minutes in the second half and played really hard as well,” said Hargrove.

Coley (Little Rock, Ark.) sophomore, hit seven of eight free throws.

MCC shot 57.4 percent from the field, made 14 of 25 triples (56 percent) for the game and went 17 of 21 from the free-throw line (81 percent).

After getting out-rebounded 19-15 in the first half, the Indians reversed the trend in the final half 16-13.

“We got out-rebounded in the first half, but we came back stronger in the second half and were only a minus-one for the game,” said Hargrove.

Lamar shot 49.3 percent from the field, made nine of 27 3-pointers (33.3 percent) and went 15 of 19 from the free-throw line (78.9).

The Runnin’ Lopes entered play Wednesday in third place in the Region IX South standings, but fall to 4-3 (10-13 overall).

MCC was alone in fourth place before the game but improve to 4-4 in the standings and 14-10 overall.

Elsewhere around the region Wednesday night, Southeast Community College knocked out first place North Platte in Lincoln, 77-74. Northeastern Junior College downed Otero 76-65 in Sterling, Colo., and Trinidad State hit a shot at the buzzer to down Western Nebraska 74-72 in Scottsbluff.

North Platte (6-2, 14-9) remains in first place in the standings with Northeastern Junior College second (5-2, 14-8). Lamar (4-3, 10-13) remains a half-game in front of MCC (4-4, 14-10) and Southeast (4-4, 12-11). Trinidad is in sixth place (3-4, 10-12), Otero in seventh place (2-5, 3-18) and Western Nebraska in eighth place (2-6, 8-18).

The top four teams in the standings at the end of the regular season will receive home games for the post-season play-in tournament. The top overall seed will receive a first-round bye.

“We have another big one Saturday at home against Southeast,” said Hargrove.

The Indians MCC will be home again Saturday for a 4 p.m. contest against Southeast Community College.

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