MCC men hold for win over Bobcats
LINCOLN – The McCook Community College men’s basketball team held on for a 73-70 win Saturday over Southeast Community College.
“This was a tough, gritty road win for us tonight,” said MCC Assistant Coach Drake Henderson. “It wasn’t pretty, but we’ll never complain about a conference win on the road.”
MCC held a 40-32 lead at intermission and was able to take an 11-point lead with 8:51 left in the game then held on for the win. Freshman Djibril Diawara (Aulnay-sous-Bois, France) hit a pair of free throws with 16 seconds remaining and the Bobcats missed a final 3-pointer with time expiring.
“I’m really proud of our defensive effort in the second half, especially late. Southeast had a chance to win it at the end and our guys were able to find a way to get the stop and the rebound,” said Henderson. “Djibril made some clutch free throws at the end so kudos to him for stepping up and knocking those down.”
Diawara led MCC with 22 points. He hit a pair of 3-pointers and made four of five free throws. Sophomore Nate Coley (Little Rock, Ark.) scored 21 points with included a 13-for-16 game at the free-throw line.
Redshirt freshman Alier Alier (Bor, South Sudan) put in 10 points and had nine rebounds. Sophomore Lukas Gudavicius (Palanga, Lithuania) led the Indians with 11 boards and added six points. In a starting role Saturday, sophomore Luke Sinisa (Auckland, North Island New Zealand) had six points and three rebounds.
“Obviously with having a few guys out tonight, we had to play some different lineups,” said Henderson. “I thought our guys did a good job of playing through that, I think everyone who came into the game was able to be impactful for us in some shape or form.”
The Indians shot 49.1 percent from the field, made just two of 12 triples (16.7 percent) and hit on 17 of 25 free throws (68 percent.) MCC turned the ball over 17 times.
The Bobcats shot 37.9 percent from the floor, made five of 23 shots from the 3-point line and went 15 of 22 from the free-throw line (68.2 percent. SCC turned the ball over 20 times and out-rebounded MCC 44-30.
“There’s definitely some things we could’ve done better but we’ll always take ugly wins over pretty losses any day of the week,” said Henderson.
Southeast CC goes to 10-10 overall and 1-3 in the Region IX standings.
MCC improves to 13-8 overall and 3-2 in the region.
On Wednesday MCC will be home to host Western Nebraska at 7:30 p.m. in the second half of a women’s/men’s doubleheader in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.
“We’re happy to get out of there with the win and come back home and get ready for good Western Nebraska team,” said Henderson.
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