MCC men overcome early deficit in win over Southeast CC

MCC men overcome early deficit in win over Southeast CC

The McCook Community College men picked up an 89-80 win over Southeast Community College Saturday in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.

After struggling from the opening tip, the Indians overcame an early 13-point lead, tied the game 36-36 at half, went up by 16 points in the first five minutes of the second half. But Southeast came back to cut the gap to 10 points with 3:26 to play.

"It's something we have to work on -- and a weakness of this team -- is who is going to step up and lead us," said MCC Coach Kyle Drennan. "We took some bad shots, quick shots at the end that led to them getting in transition and every time we did it, it just gave Southeast a little air, but we finished and I'm proud of these guys."

Five Indians scored in double-figures. Sophomore Raheim Sullivan (Toronto, Ontario) led the Indians with 18 points. Sophomore Justin Costello (Omaha /Elkhorn South High School) had 17. Freshman LeTre Darthard (Denton, Texas) scored 14. Freshman Boaz Quinlan (Beavertown, Ore.) scored 11 and sophomore Tyrik Singh (San Juan, Trinidad and Tobago) scored 10 points.

"We're headed in the right direction and the one thing I'm really proud of is 17 assists, that's the most we've had all season," Drennan said. "When we get moving, you saw tonight, it almost pings around, there's no dribbling, and we're wide open but we have to knock down shots. Our bigs have to step up and finish."

The Indians shot 42.2 percent from the field, 38,5 percent on 23 3-pointers and made 17 of 18 free throws (94.4 percent).

The Storm shot 42.2 percent from the field, 27.8 percent on 18 3-pointers and made 19 of 28 free throws (67.9 percent).

Darthard led MCC in rebounds with nine, Singh had six and freshman Rahkiem Petterson (Midland, Texas) had five. MCC held the rebound edge 46-42.

Southeast falls to 10-7 and 0-1 in Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference play.

MCC improves to 8-9 and will hit the road for five straight games starting Tuesday in North Platte with a critical NCCAC game.

Drennan said the team's goal is to win the NCCAC and he believes these next five road games are critical for building momentum to take advantage of a home-heavy February schedule.

For more information on MCC basketball and all MCC sports, visit the official site of MCC Athletics at https://mccindians.com/index.aspx?path=mbball

For more photos from tonight's game please visit the McCook Community College Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/MPCCMcCook/

If you can't make it to the next MCC home watch it live at: https://mccindians.com/sports/2016/11/10/tw.aspx?tab=tribewatch