Indians subdue SCC Bobcats at home

The McCook Community College men won their second home game this week, downing Southeast Community College 83-70 Saturday in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.

“This was a really good effort from the guys today,” said MCC Coach Dilon Hargrove.

MCC went up 15 points in the first half with 7:07 left until intermission and led at the half 42-33.

“We got up there big in the first half and then let off the gas a little bit which was disappointing,” said Hargrove. “We went into half with a nine-point lead and in the locker room we talked about how important the first five minutes of the second half was going to be and we didn’t pay very good attention.”

Southeast went on an 11-0 run to take a two-point lead, forcing an early MCC timeout.

“We made some substitutions and Vladimir Brkovic – as he does every game – comes in and brings us energy and that gave our offense energy,” said Hargrove.

The recharged Indians outscored Southeast 41-26 for the rest of the game to win their fourth region game at home against two losses. (MCC has one final home game left – Feb. 21 against Northeastern Junior College at 4 p.m.)

Brkovic scored seven points, including a 3-pointer and grabbed three rebounds. MCC was led by 27 points from sophomore Nate Coley (Little Rock, Ark.) who made nine of 10 shots from the free-throw line. Djibril Diawara (freshman, Aulnay-sous-Bois, France) scored 22 points with three triples and a seven-for-eight showing from the line.

“I was happy with Vlad,” said Hargrove. “Obviously Nate and Djibril did their thing offensively and Sofiane shot it in well.”

Sophomore Mo Diao (Darkar, Senegal) scored 11 points with seven rebounds. Sophomore Lukas Gudavicius (Palanga, Lithuania) grabbed six boards. Alier Alier (redshirt freshman, Bor, South Sudan) had four points and four rebounds and Sofiane Benragba (freshman, Montpellier, France) had seven points and three rebounds.

“Mo had a nice game rebounding for us, so did Alier and Lucas,” said Hargrove.

MCC outrebounded SCC 32-18. Shooting percentages were not available after the game.

Southeast falls to 3-5 in the Region IX South standings and 12-12 overall.

MCC remains alone in fourth place at 5-4 and 15-10 overall.

In the other Region IX south game Saturday, North Platte was a 78-59 loser at home against Lamar.

The Indians will travel to North Platte (6-3, 14-10) for a 7 p.m. game against the Knights.

“That’s a big game at North Platte Wednesday,” said Hargrove. “I think this group is kind of figuring it out a little bit.”

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