MCC men top Casper in ‘Battle For The Boot’

TWIN FALLS, Idaho – The McCook Community College men’s basketball team downed Casper College Friday afternoon 79-76 in the consolation round of the eight-team Battle For The Boot, hosted by College of Southern Idaho.

“Our guy really battled on both ends of the floor today,” said MCC Coach Dillon Hargrove, whose team snagged 18 offensive rebounds, including three critical ones in the final minute of play.

MCC broke a 75-75 tie in the final minute of the game on a sequence where the Indians secured the first of three offensive rebounds with :41 remaining, and sophomore Mo Diao, (Darkar, Senegal) snagged the third rebound with :30 seconds to give MCC a 77-75 lead on his putback.

With :08 left in the game, Djibril Diawara iced the win with a pair of free throws.

The freshman guard from (Aulnay-sous-Bois, France) delivered a game-tying assist at the 3:28 mark, hit a 3-pointer with 3:03 left in the game to put the Indians ahead 73-70. He made a pair of three-throws with 2:24 left to play putting MCC up 75-73, and made all four of his free throw attempts – all in the final 2:30 of the game. He was one of six MCC players scoring in double-digits, all 10 of his points came in the second half.

After trailing 40-37 at intermission, MCC took its largest lead of the game, 52-42, at the 14:24 mark of the second half.

“Casper showed us a different defense than we have seen all year, and I was happy to see our team take adversity and for it be a close game at the end of the game and coming out with the win,” said Hargrove, who credited his assistant coaches Drake Henderson and Taylor Carbonel for their work.

“Coach Henderson and Coach Carbonel did a great job of preparing our guys on the defensive end,” he said.

Casper shot 37 percent for the game, hit seven of 25 triples (28 percent) and went 14-for-21 from the charity stripe (66.7 percent). Channing Cade led all scorers with 25 points.

“Our emphasis and goal was to get 50 rebounds and to hold them to under 35 percent from the field under 30 percent from 3, and our guys gave a great effort towards those goals,” said Hargrove.

Freshman Sofiane Benragba (Montpellier, France) led the Indian offense scoring 16 points off the bench. He made eight of 14 shots and snagged seven boards.

Diao, the North Platte Community College transfer, and his freshman frontcourt teammate Alir Alier (Bor, South Sudan) both had double-doubles for the Indians. Diao led MCC with 13 rebounds, scored 10 points and blocked four shots. Alir had 11 rebounds, 12 points and three blocked shots.

“We had 50 almost rebounds and Alier and Mo combined for 24 of them and seven blocks between them,” said Hargrove.

Sophomore Nate Coley, (Little Rock, Ark.) scored 14 points and led MCC with five assists and freshman Lukas Gudavicius, (Palanga, Lithuania) scored 10 points with five rebounds.

MCC shot 41.3 percent from the field, made four of 18 shots from beyond the arc (22.2) percent and made 13 of 20 free throws (65 percent). The Indians converted 14 Casper turnovers into 18 points and won the rebound battle 49-47. In the paint, MCC enjoyed a 48-38 scoring edge.

“We didn’t shoot the ball like we were capable of shooting, but I thought our bigs really played well and made up for it – including Sofiane and Lukas,” said Hargrove.  

The Thunderbirds fall to 0-3 on the season.

MCC improves to 3-1 on the year and will play Saturday in the fifth-place game taking on the winner of the game between Western Wyoming and Columbia Basin (Washington). Saturday’s game time has not been set.

Up-to-date information about MCC women’s basketball including livestream links for home games, schedule, statistics, rosters, photos and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com