MCC men drop home opener to Colby 73-60
Oct 30, 2026 / MCC Athletics/Brent Cobb
The McCook Community College basketball team dropped their season-opener at home Friday to Colby 73-60.
“The two things that really hurt us were fouls and free throws – we fouled entirely too much and they took advantage of that and on the flip side we shot just 58 percent from the line,” said MCC Coach Taylor Shaffer.
Colby scored McCook 29-14 from the free-throw line. The Trojans made 26 of 39 attempts (76.3 percent) while the Indians made 14 of 24 for 58.3 percent.
The Kansas team held a 35-32 lead at the half, but MCC came back to take a 45-38 lead at the 12:52 mark of the second half on a 3-point shot by Josue Kangudi, sophomore (Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo).
The Trojans went on a 13-0 run over the next 3:17 to take the lead for good. The Indians battled back to make it a four-point game with 5:51 left but Colby took control of the game over the final five minutes of the game.
“I think in the second half late, we just settled too much on the offensive end,” said Shaffer.
Colby finished the game shooting 34.5 percent from the field on 55 shots and made six of 26 shots from the 3-point line (23.1 percent.) MCC shot 32.8 percent from the floor on 64 shots and made four of 20 triples (20 percent.)
“We’re a team that is going to have to shoot the ball well in order to win games and we didn’t shoot well even though we got good looks,” said Shaffer.
Colby held a commanding edge on the boards 52-32. Colby turned the ball over 16 times to 13 for MCC.
Derek Shepard led Colby with 29 points.
MCC had three players in double-figures led by Kangudi and sophomore Justin Rushin (Charlotte, N.C.) with 12 points each. Sophomore Isayah Pankey (Dallas, Texas) scored 10. Tymere Singleton, sophomore (Dallas, Texas) led the Indians with six rebounds to go along with eight points.”
“Between the fouls and the poor shooting from the field and the free-throw line, you’re not going to win many games doing what we did,” said Shaffer.
The 0-1 Indians have a short turnaround and will be in action Saturday at 1 p.m. against Fort Hays Tech Northwest as the first game in a men’s/women’s doubleheader.
Up-to-date information about MCC basketball including up-to-date schedule and changes, livestream links for home games, rosters, photos, statistics and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com