No. 16 Garden City downs MCC men 79-73
GARDEN CITY, Kan. – The McCook Community College men’s basketball team lost a 79-73 decision Wednesday to No. 16 Garden City Community College to open the season on the road at Conestoga Arena.
“This one hurts. We played hard and well enough to win it, we just couldn't come up with the play,” said MCC Coach Jacob Brandl.
The Indians got down by seven points twice in the second half, the first time down 60-53 with 8:44 left in the game. Sophomore Noah Boyed (Monchy, St. Lucia) hit an eight-footer and was fouled on the shot with 5:14 left and his free throw gave MCC a 63-62 lead.
The Broncbusters went up by seven again at the 3:13 mark with a 3-pointer to take a 72-65 lead. A pair of free throws by sophomore Trey Summers (Greeley, Colo.) with 18.2 second left brought MCC to a 75-73 deficit, but Garden City was able to ice the game at the line.
“Credit to Garden they made big shots when they needed to and capitalized on all of our mistakes,” said Brandl.
MCC fell behind by seven points in the first half but fought back late as sophomore Zeki Cavli (Bodrum, Turkey) hit a 3-pointer with 32 seconds left in the half, then hit another 3-pointer at the buzzer to pull MCC within one, 37-36.
Boyed led MCC with 18 points to go along with eight rebounds.
Cavli came off the bench to net 15 points with a three-for-seven night from the 3-point line.
Redshirt freshman Bryan Akanmu (Paris, France) and freshman Louie Tucker (Bristol, England) both had 11 points as Akanmu led MCC with 13 rebounds.
MCC shot 38.7 percent from the field, made seven of 25 shots from the 3-point line (28 percent) and 18 of 27 from the free-throw line (66.7 percent).
“One of the positives are that we rebounded the ball extremely well,” said Brandl. “I thought we were good in that area and I thought we were tough offensively too. We got a lot of great looks.”
The Indians outrebounded the Broncbusters 40-34 and turned the ball over 14 times.
“Playing on the road is tough enough but playing on the road against a top 20 team is really tough and 14 turnovers are way too many for this team,” said Brandl. “We have good enough guys with the ball that, that number should be down.”
Garden City finished the night shooting 45.3 percent from the floor, made 10 of 31 3-pointers (32.3 percent) and went just 11 of 21 from the line (52.4 percent.) The Broncs turned the ball over eight times.
“We played hard enough to win and I'm proud of the group but we need to let this sting for a little bit and get back to work and keep improving,” Brandl said.
MCC will be home three times in the next week with the home opener Friday at 7:30 p.m. against Eastern Wyoming. On Saturday Laramie County comes to town for a 4 p.m. game and on Tuesday MCC hosts Indian Hills Community College at 7:30 p.m.
Up-to-date information about MCC basketball including schedules, statistics, rosters and photos can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com.
