Western Nebraska wins at home over MCC men 84-78

SCOTTSBLUFF – Western Nebraska Community College beat the McCook Community College men Friday night 84-78.

“This was a tough one on the road tonight. We fought really hard, I thought we executed really well, we just couldn’t finish the plays when we needed them the most,” said MCC Assistant Coach Drake Henderson.

The Indians held a 25-18 lead in the first half, but the Cougars responded to take a 41-37 lead at the half. MCC shot 58.6 percent from the field in the first half.

Western Nebraska stretched the intermission advantage to 55-49 before MCC went on an 8-0 run to take reclaim a 57-55 lead with 11:20 left in the game.

Again the Cougars went up by seven points at the 7:27 mark 68-61 before the Indians forced turnovers on two straight possessions to whittle the lead to 74-73 with 2:27 left but the Cougars closed out the game and went up 83-73 and held on for the win.

“I thought we did a good enough job defensively to win the game, it just came down to making big shots on the offensive end to win the game, and we didn’t do that,” said Henderson.

The Indians finished the game shooting 49.2 percent overall, but just two of 18 from the 3-point line (11.1 percent) and made 17 of 24 free throws (64.3 percent). MCC had 17 turnovers.

Western Nebraska shot 40.4 percent from the field, made 11 of 23 threes (47.8 percent), and went 27-for-35 from the free-throw line (77.1 percent). The Cougars outrebounded MCC 37-36 and turned the ball over 10 times.

“Our guys executed really well down the stretch, we got multiple open looks for guys, we just couldn’t make the big shot,” said Henderson. “Western’s a very good offensive team, so you have to be able to make big shots to beat them, and we didn’t do that tonight.”

Sophomore Madison Peaster (Little Rock, Ark.) was MCC’s leading scorer with 23 points. Norris Bourne Jr. (sophomore, Beaumont, Texas) and freshman Nate Coley, (Little Rock, Ark.) both scored 16 points. Coley was eight-for-nine from the line. Freshman Vladimir Brkovic (Uzice, Serbia) scored 15 points and tied Bourne Jr. for team honors in rebounds with six.

The Cougars improve to 6-4 in the region standings, 11-15 overall.

The Indians fall to 2-7 in the region and are 12-15 overall. MCC has three home games to finish the regular season starting Tuesday night against North Platte at 7:30 p.m., Friday with Trinidad State at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 4 p.m. against Otero College.

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

REGION IX SOUTH D-1 MEN’S STANDINGS
                                            W-L    PCT      OVERALL
Trinidad State               6-3     .667      13-13  (.500)

Lamar CC                       7-4     .636       9-15  (.375)

Western Nebraska     6-4     .600      11-15 (.423)

North Platte                   5-4     .555     17-10  (.630)

Otero College               4-5     .444      10-14  (.417)

Northeastern JC          4-7     .364        9-19  (.321)

McCook                           2-7     .286      12-15  (.444)

FRIDAY RESULTS GAMES
North Platte 73, Northeastern JC 64 (at North Platte)

Lamar 84, Otero College 78 (at Lamar)

Western Nebraska 84, McCook 78 (at Scottsbluff)

REMAINING MCC SCHEDULE
Feb. 25 – North Platte at McCook, 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 28 – Otero College at McCook CC (7:30 p.m.)

March 1 – Trinidad State at McCook CC (4 p.m.)