MCC men drop 109-100 to No. 14 Indian Hills CC

The McCook Community College men dropped a 109-100 decision at home Tuesday to No. 14 Indian Hills Community College.

“Anytime you get 100 points you normally feel pretty good where you’re at and have a good chance to win a basketball game but defensively we just didn’t get the stops that we needed,” said MCC Coach Jacob Brandl.

The Warriors led at the half 54-50.

“To me the huge difference in this game was the 11 offensive rebounds we gave up. Of those I think they got points on nine of 12 second-chance opportunities and we had too many turnovers and a lot of them were live-ball turnovers and got another eight points of those mistakes and that was the game.”

MCC shot 53.3 percent for the game, made eight of 19 3-pointers (42.1 percent) and went 28 of 35 from the line (80 percent). The Indians won the rebound battle 36-31 and turned the ball over 18 times.

The Warriors shot 49.3 percent from the field went eight-for 25 from distance (32 percent) and made 25 of 29 free throws (82.9 percent). IHCC turned the ball over nine times.

“Indian Hills is a really good team. Let’s face it. There’s a reason they’re ranked eighth in the media poll and 14 in the NJCAA with a lot of guys that can play,” Brandl said.

The Warriors had six players in double-figures led by Kheni Briggs’ 27.

“Every shot, every play they needed, he made and David Hermes was good down the stretch for them,” said Brandl. Hermes scored 16 points.

“We had some players step up as well. We were really tough to guard tonight,” said Brandl.

Five MCC players reached double-digits. Sophomore Martel Evans (Omaha Creighton Prep) led MCC with 28 points off the bench and seven rebounds. He was 10 of 12 from the free-throw line. Sophomore Trey Summers (Greeley, Colo.) scored 20 points with a three-for-six night from beyond the 3-point arc.

Sophomore transfer Ty Foster (Bronx, N.Y.) scored 19 points and went nine-for-10 from the line. Freshman Louie Tucker (Bristol, England) made five of eight 3-pointers and scored 15 points. Sophomore Noah Boyed (Monchy, St. Lucia) scored 15 points.

“The big improvement between this game and Saturday’s loss was that our spacing was better,” Brandl said. “I thought we did a lot better job of spacing the floor and way more active and didn’t allow the ball to die and we attacked.”

This game was the season-opener for Indian Hills Community College.

MCC goes to 1-3 on the season. The Indians are off for a week and will host Dodge City Community College in a men’s only game starting at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Up-to-date information about MCC basketball including schedules, statistics, rosters and photos can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com.