MCC Men Start Second Half of Season Saturday at Home - Coverage Heard on 102.1 True Country

The McCook Community College men’s basketball team is looking to pick up where they left off almost a month ago as they return to the home court Saturday against Central Community College. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. and is the second game of a women’s/men’s doubleheader.

“I thought we were playing really good basketball at the end of the first semester,” said MCC Coach Jacob Brandl. “We got to scoring well and guys were playing at a really high level and it’s tough to hit the breaks right after you’re moving in the right direction.”

After falling to 2-8 on Dec. 1, MCC won two of three games on the road to finish at 4-9 for the first semester.

Season-ending injuries to two MCC opening night starters changed the trajectory of the season. In the fifth game, 7-0 sophomore post Noah Boyed (Monchy, St. Lucia) went down with a knee injury and in the ninth game MCC lost sophomore guard Trey Summers (Greeley, Colo.).

“I like where we’re at coming back despite not being at full strength without Trey and Noah being out for the year but guys coming back are playing at a high level and high confidence, so we’re really excited for moving forward,” said Brandl.

On the day before his injury Boyed signed a letter of intent to play basketball at Baylor. He was averaging 12.6 points and 6.2 rebounds per game and was shooting 53.3 percent from the field. Summers was averaging 13.4 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. He was shooting 50.6 percent from the field, 35.1 percent from the 3-point line and 78.8 percent from the free-throw line.

MCC is averaging 82.2 points per game, is shooting 43.6 percent from the field 31.5 percent from the 3-point line and 72.4 percent from the free-throw line. The team averages 40.5 rebounds per game with a 4.8 rebound per fame advantage. Defensively the Indians are giving up 86.2 points per game.

Saturday’s opponent, Central Community College (11-4) is the only region or conference opponent the Indians played before the holiday break. The Raiders beat MCC 93-85 Nov. 21 in Columbus.

“This is the point of the season that really matters now – not that the other ones didn’t – but now you’re in Region IX south play and Nebraska Community College Conference play, so every game we play from here on out has pretty big meaning to us,” Brandl said.

Leading the way into the second half of the season, freshman Louie Tucker (Bristol, England) leads all active players with 15.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, shooting 40.4 percent from the field and 38.8 percent from distance. He is third in the south division of Region IX in scoring and 3-point shooting. Sophomore Martel Evans (Omaha Creighton Prep) is averaging 14.5 points and 4.2 rebounds. He tops the team shooting 53.5 percent which is fourth best in the south region.

Sophomore Ty Foster (Bronx, N.Y.) is averaging 12.2 points and 2.9 assists per game. Freshman Bryan Akanmu (Paris, France) averages 9.5 points and 5.8 boards per game, and sophomore Zeki Cavli (Bodrum, Turkey) is scoring 8.0 points per game with 2.5 assists.

“Guys like Martel, Zeki, Bryan, Louie and Ty were all pretty consistent for us,” said Brandl. “Having all those guys back and healthy if big and if we can stay healthy, I like where we’re at and like our chances.”

Brandl said when the guys came back from break, he could tell who worked hard on their game.

“There’s a couple guys that didn’t get a ton of minutes in the first semester that are looking really good right now,” said Brandl.

The coach cited sophomore transfer Ridley Sheema who stepped up late in the semester to fill a bigger role on the team. He had averaged 9.4 minutes a game playing in five of the first seven games averaging 2.0 points per game. After Thanksgiving he averaged almost 15 minutes per game and scored at least five points off the bench in three of his final four games.

“He’s finally started to figure out some stuff before the break, and stepped up to make some big shots,” said Brandl.

The Indians have three more January home games – all on Tuesday nights including Southeast Community College Jan. 16, Northeastern Junior College Jan. 23 and North Platte Jan. 30.

The Indians have two home games in February, Feb. 6 vs. Lamar and Feb. 16 against Western Nebraska and close out the home slate March 1-2 against Trinidad State and Otero Junior 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.