MCC men drop conference opener to Raiders 93-85

COLUMBUS – The McCook Community College men dropped a 93-85 decision Tuesday to Central Community College to open the Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference season.

“I thought we played hard enough to win but at the end of the day we didn’t make enough plays and they did,” said MCC Coach Jacob Brandl.

The Indians held a 37-25 lead with 5:05 left in the half but the Raiders cut it to 43-38 at halftime.

“That run late in the first half really hurt us being up 12 points and they made that big run,” said Brandl. “And then again in the second half they got up eight with seven minutes to go and that did us in as well.”

Central emerged strong after the half and reclaimed the lead at the 16:15 mark, 48-46, then extended it to five points a minute later but MCC responded with a short run to tie the game at 52 with 14:52 left in the game.

“Every single time they needed a big shot, they got it and we just couldn’t overcome it,” said Brandl.

Central took a 73-65 lead with 7:48 remining. MCC pushed back and cut it to 80-77 with a pair of Ty Foster free throws at the 4:15 mark. A 3-pointer

by Bryan Akanmu at 2:21 kept it at a three-point lead. Foster hit a layup at the 1:29 to cut the CCC lead to 86-85, but Central closed out the game with seven straight points.

MCC finished the game shooting 42.7 percent from the field, made nine of 27 3-pointers (33.3 percent) and went 12 of 19 at the free-throw line (63.2 percent). MCC had just six turnovers in the game.

“Offensively, we played well enough, we took care of the ball well, only had six turnovers and we got out-rebounded, but they shot 59 percent in the second half and we shoot 40, so there weren’t a lot of rebound opportunities,” said Brandl.

Central shot 50.8 percent for the game, made 13 of 33 long-distance shots (39.4 percent) and made 20 of 23 foul shots (87 percent). The Raiders held a 36-31 rebound edge.

“The 3 point-line and the free-throw line were the big indicator of how this game goes,” said Brandl. “They make eight more free throws than what we do and made four more 3-point shots.”

Sophomore Martel Evans (Omaha Creighton Prep) came off the bench to lead the team in scoring with 19 points and added six rebounds. Sophomore transfer Ty Foster (Bronx, N.Y.) added 18 points, freshman Bryan Akanmu (Paris, France) scored 14 points on a four-for-seven night from beyond the arc. Sophomore Zeki Cavli (Bodrum, Turkey) scored 13 points and freshman Louie Tucker (Bristol, England) added 10. Trey Summers (Greeley, Colo.) led the Indians with seven rebounds to go along with nine points.

“We had a lot of guys step up. Louie Tucker was having a great game with 10 points in 13 minutes and then gets hit in the head and goes down and we had to sit him down for the rest of the game,” said Brandl. “Bryan Akanmu stepped up, making four big threes in the second half and Martel Evans did a good job of getting down hill.”

CCC improves to 6-1.

MCC goes to 2-5. The Indians travel to Casper, Wyo. for a pair of games this weekend in the Casper Classic. MCC takes on Western Wyoming Friday at 1 p.m. and plays Casper at 7 p.m. Saturday.

“We’ve got to hit our free throws. Overall, we played hard but defensively we’ve got to get back to playing our game on that side of the ball because we have a big week ahead of us,” said Brandl.

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