Indians hold on for 60-59 win at North Platte

NORTH PLATTE – The McCook Community College men survived a couple late negated baskets Tuesday in the final seconds of the game and held on for a 60-59 win over North Platte.

MCC took the 60-59 lead with 11.3 seconds on a pair of free throws by Madison Peaster (sophomore, Little Rock, Ark.).

Trey Summers, who spent parts of the previous three seasons with MCC, hit a jumper as time expired but the basket didn’t count because North Platte Coach Jacob Brandl had called a time out prior to Summers’ shot with 0.8 left on the clock. On the ensuing in-bounds play North Platte’s Justus Michael hit a baseline jumper but after an official’s review, the shot was released after the game clock had expired and did not count.

The two teams battled throughout the first 17 minutes of the game until the Knights outscored MCC 10-2 over the final 2:41 of the first half and took a 39-29 lead at intermission.

“I’m very proud for our guys for figuring it out in the end,” said Hargrove.

North Platte held MCC to a 33.3 percent shooting percentage in the first half on 30 shots while the Knights went 16-for-36 (44.4 percent) from the field in the first 20 minutes.

“Credit to North Platte they were very well prepared in taking our offensive sets out of play tonight,” said MCC Coach Dillon Hargrove.

The Indians picked it up slightly in the offensive end in the second half (37.5 percent) but held the Knights to an eight-for-30 showing in the second half.

“Our guys came out in the second half with a different mindset and was more motivated on the defensive end,” said Hargrove.

Freshman Vladimir Brkovic (Uzice, Serbia) led the offense with some key makes to help the Indians overcome the 10-point deficit. He made three of five shots from the 3-point line and finished with 12 points off the bench.

Freshman Nate Coley, (Little Rock, Ark.) led MCC with 15 points. Peaster finished with 11 and led the Indians with nine rebounds. Sophomore Norris Bourne Jr. (Beaumont, Texas) scored 12 points. Sophomore Meek Ater (Yirol, South Sudan) scored eight points with six boards.

“We had a huge performance by Vladimir making huge shots,” said Hargrove. “Nate and Madison controlled the tempo for us, and we just had a better effort the entire second half.”

The Indians made 15 of 18 shots from the free-throw line (83.3 percent), and turned the ball over 17 times.

Mo Diao led North Platte with 18 points, Michael had 14 and Summers finished with seven. The Knights outrebounded MCC 44-38 and committed 15 turnovers. North Platte went to the line 11 times in the game (three times in the second half) and made seven free throws (63.6 percent)

North Platte falls to 13-9 overall and 3-3 in the Region IX South.

Tuesday’s win was the first one on the road in Region IX play for MCC as the team goes to 2-4 in the region and 11-12 overall.

The Indians are on the road Sunday in Lincoln to take on Southeast Community 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