MCC men close out regular season with loss to Otero
The McCook Community College men’s basketball team closed out the regular season Saturday at home with an 81-72 loss to Otero College on Sophomore Day at the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.
“This is the third game in a row that it’s come down to a three- minute game and we haven’t been able to make the big plays,” said MCC Coach Dillon Hargrove.
The two teams battled throughout the first half as MCC went up by six points with 4:51 left in the first half and led 36-34 at intermission.
Otero took the quick momentum to start the second half and went up by eight points with 16:04 left but the Indians fought back to tie the game at 44-44 with 14:50 left in the game. Neither team was able to establish a big lead and the teams tied at 56 at the 9:18 mark, tied 62- 62 with 5:31 left and 66-66 at the 3:12 mark.
“We’re playing well for about 35 minutes of the game,” said Hargrove.
Otero hit 3-pointers with 3:03 left and again at the 2:07 mark to take a 72-68 lead that MCC was unable to overcome.
“Defensively I think we’ve been playing pretty good with what we do,” said Hargrove. “Offensively in the second half we’ve been struggling. We just haven’t been making the big shots.”
On Saturday Otero shot 50 percent from the field in the first half and finished shooting 46.4 with four-for-16 from the 3-point line, but they came at critical moments in the game.
MCC shot 42.6 percent for the game and made five of 19 from the 3-point line (26.3 percent) and 15 of 23 from the line (65.2 percent).
Four players scored in double-figures led by Sophomore Madison Peaster (Little Rock, Ark.) who scored 22 points. Norris Bourne Jr. (sophomore, Beaumont, Texas) and freshman Nate Coley, (Little Rock, Ark.) both scored 12 and sophomore Meek Ater (Yirol, South Sudan) added 11 points.
Seven sophomores were honored prior to the game. They include: Dave Olaniyi (Newark, N.J.) (who was unable to be with the team Saturday tending to a family matter); Madison Peaster Norris Bourne Jr.; Meek Ater; Sacha Boizette (Gatineau Quebec), (Marial Diper, Rumbek, South Sudan) and (Tavarius Vinson, Chicago, Ill.). Boizette is the only one of the players who was with the team last season all the others transferred from other schools to play for first-year Coach Hargrove.
“Congratulations to these sophomores. I love these guys and have enjoyed coaching them and we’re going to try and be better here at playoff time and make a run,” said Hargrove.
Otero finishes the season at 6-6 in the region and 12-15 overall, finishing fifth in the standings and travel for the first-round Region IX play-in games next weekend and play the fourth-place team. Western Nebraska, North Platte, Trinidad State and Lamar were all battling for the top four spots in the standings.
MCC will finish last in the standings at 2-9 and 12-17 overall. MCC will travel for the play-in games next weekend against the second-seeded team.
“We just told the guys it’s a new season come Friday or Saturday whoever we play, the records don’t matter it’s just about who prepares the most and executes in those games,” said Hargrove.
Play-in game times and pairings will be announced following the results of this weekend’s games.
Up-to-date information about MCC basketball including post-season pairings, schedules, statistics, livestream links, rosters, photos and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com