MCC men pick up Saturday win over Central CC

The McCook Community College men took down Central Community College Saturday in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center 82-66.

“I thought we did a really good job of executing our game plan start to finish,” said MCC Coach Jacob Brandl. “I was really impressed with us defensively. That’s a very talented team we beat and there’s a reason they were 11-4.”

The Raiders had been averaging 77.3 points per game, shooting 44.6 percent from the field and 35.4 percent from the 3-point line.

“A big key for us tonight was keeping them off the 3-point line and being able to guard that,” said Brandl. “The first time we played them they hit 13 of them and were wide open all over the place, but today we did a nice job of carrying through the defensive game plan.”

Central, which beat MCC 93-85 in Columbus on Nov. 21, made 50.8 percent of its shots in that win and took 33 3-pointers. On Saturday MCC held the Raiders to 33.8 percent from the field, and just six of 25 from the 3-point arc (24 percent). The Raiders outrebounded MCC 53-47.

MCC shot 35.1 percent from the field and went seven-for-25 from distance and 21 of 25 from the free-throw line (84 percent).

“I really thought we shot better than 35 percent,” Brandl said. “It felt like guys did a good job of getting downhill and not taking hard shots. For the most part we took really good shots.”

Four MCC players scored in double-figures led by 18 points apiece from freshman Louie Tucker (Bristol, England) and sophomore Martel Evans (Omaha Creighton Prep). Tucker went four-for-six from the 3-point line and Evans went 10 of 11 from the free-throw line. Freshman Bryan Akanmu (Paris, France) scored 14 points and sophomore Zeki Cavli (Bodrum, Turkey) scored 13 points.

Akanmu topped MCC with nine rebounds and Tucker grabbed eight.

“Shout out to a couple guys who didn’t get a lot of minutes in the first semester in Ridley Shema and Jaxson Brandl and both started for us in this game,” said the coach.

Sophomore Ridley Shema (London, England) scored eight points, nabbed four rebounds, blocked two shots and had one steal. Freshman Jaxson Brandl (Tribune, Kan. /Greeley County HS) scored three points and added four rebounds and led the team with four steals.

“They both played really well,” said Brandl. “Jaxson’s stat-line doesn’t blow you away but man he was really good. Defensively, he got some big-time rebounds and Ridley kind of carried us early in the game when we had a hard time scoring and Ridley was aggressive and really got after it.”

Brandon Kabuya Mpoyi (sophomore, Paris, France) added eight points and three rebounds.

Central falls to 11-5 on the season and 1-1 in NCCAC play.

“What we got tonight is what we’re going to need going forward with Region IX play coming up it’ll be all hands on deck,” said Brandl. “We thought at the beginning of the year that depth was going to be a strength for us and with guys going down and being out the bench is really embracing that and we need that to continue.”

MCC improves to 5-9. The Indians travel to Colorado next weekend for a pair of Region IX south games. On Friday MCC plays Otero Junior College (6-10) and on to Trinidad Saturday. The Trojans are 11-5.

The next home game for the Indians is Jan. 16 at 7:30 p.m. against Southeast Community College.

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