MCC men take road win from Southeast CC 76-69
LINCOLN – The McCook Community College men’s basketball team was dialed in early Sunday and rode the first-half momentum to a 76-69 win over Southeast Community College.
The Indians hit shots at a 50 percent clip in the first half and led at the half 39-27. Again, out of the second half MCC took care of business and stretched the lead to 19 points at 53-34.
“I thought the first half we played with great energy and with the right mindset on the defensive end,” said MCC Coach Dillon Hargrove.
MCC struggled from the floor in the second half, shooting just 30.8 percent giving the Bobcats the chance to make a late run to tighten the game to three points in the final minutes but MCC was able to make free throws, outscoring the Bobcats from the line 24-9.
“Southeast hit some big shots late and we did our job at the end of controlling the tempo with the last two minutes and doing our jobs,” said Hargrove.
MCC scored 29 points off 22 Southeast turnovers.
The Indians finished the game shooting 40.7 from the field, making eight of 20 shots from the 3-point line (40 percent) and converting on 24 of 30 free throws (80 percent). MCC had 12 turnovers.
Southeast shot 43.7 from the field, making 12 of 29 shots from the arc (41.4 percent) and went nine-for-16 from the free-throw line (56.3 percent). The Bobcats outrebounded MCC 36-28.
Freshman Nate Coley, (Little Rock, Ark.) led MCC with 28 points. Sophomore Madison Peaster (Little Rock, Ark.) scored 15 points, hitting all three of his 3-pointers.
“We had some good individual performances from Nate Coley and Madison Peaster,” said Hargrove. “We really had a nice game converting in transition.”
Sophomore Norris Bourne Jr. (Beaumont, Texas) scored 11 points and was eight-for-eight from the free-throw line. Meek Ater (sophomore, Yirol, South Sudan) led MCC with eight rebounds. Freshman Vladimir Brkovic (Uzice, Serbia) scored eight with five rebounds.
Southeast CC goes to 9-17 on the season and 1-3 in the Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference.
MCC improves to 12-12 and was 4-1 in the Nebraska Conference with the lone NCCAC game at home against North Platte on Feb. 25 in a men’s only game at 7:30 p.m.
The Indians will be on the road Friday in Lamar for a Region IX South game. MCC is 2-4 in the region while Lamar leads the region standings with a 4-1 record – their only loss coming at McCook on Jan. 21, 86-83.
Up-to-date information about MCC basketball including livestream links, schedule, statistics, rosters, photos and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com