Indians open conference play with 85-80 win over Central CC

MCC’s Dave Olaniyi gets the critical putback after his second offensive rebound to give MCC a late lead Tuesday against Central Community College.

The McCook Community College men’s basketball team opened Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference play Tuesday with an 85-80 win over Central Community College at home.

“I think we played really hard the entire game and played well off our pressure defense,” said MCC Coach Dillon Hargrove. “We got some defensive to offensive possessions which allowed us to jump on them early,” said Hargrove.

The Indians took a 43-31 lead at halftime and stretched the lead to 17 points at the 12:12 mark of the second half.

“Central is really well-coached and made some adjustments in the second half to our press,” said Hargrove.

The Raiders cut the MCC lead to 73-65 with 4:49 left to play. Sophomore transfer Norris Bourne Jr. (Beaumont, Texas) sank a 3-pointer with 3:49 left to put MCC ahead 76-67. A pair of free throws and a Central steal at the 3:20 mark and a layup cut the gap to 76-71.

With less than 2:00 left, 5-10 sophomore transfer Dave Olaniyi (Newark, N.J.) snagged a pair of offensive rebounds and his putback gave MCC an 80-73 lead. Central hit a pair of free throws with 32.5 seconds remaining to cut the gap to 81-78 but Bourne hit four straight free throws in the final 22.9 seconds to help pad the win.

“I’m proud how we finished the game. We turned the ball over late but for the most part finished the game hard,” said Hargrove.

MCC shot 50.8 percent for the game, made 10 of 29 3-pointers (34.5 percent) and went 13 of 23 from the free-throw line (56.5 percent).

Central, which outscored MCC 49-42 in the second half, shot 58.6 in the final 20 minutes and finished at 51.9 percent for the game, making five of 19 from distance (26.3 percent) and 19 of 22 free throws (86.4 percent).

The Indians held a 31-20 rebound edge and turned the ball over 16 times.

Bourne, who came off the bench, led MCC with 18 points, making four of 11 shots from the 3-point line and four of five from the free-throw line. Sophomore transfer Madison Peaster (Little Rock, Ark.) scored 17 points.

Freshman Jason Robinson (Waterbury, Conn.) and Olaniyi both scored 14 points. Olaniyi tied for team-high honors in rebounds with six. Vladimir Brkovic (freshman, Uzice, Serbia) had six rebounds with eight points.

Central goes to 4-6 on the year.

MCC improves to 5-4 on the year with six games left to close out the pre-holiday portion of the schedule.

This weekend the Indians travel to Wyoming for the Casper Thanksgiving Classic taking. MCC plays Western Wyoming (3-6) Friday at 4 p.m. and play Casper College (7-2) Saturday at 7 p.m.

“Western Wyoming is a really good team from the north and Casper the next night but I think this team’s going to keep on getting better and they keep playing hard,” said Hargrove.

The Indians will be home for two more games in December hosting Laramie County Community College at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 6 and Eastern Wyoming at 3 p.m. Dec. 7. MCC closes out the 2024 half of the schedule Dec. 13-14 in Sterling Colo. for the Region IX North/South Shootout taking on Laramie County and Western Wyoming.

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