Late comeback for MCC men falls short

LA JUNTA, Colo. – The McCook Community College men’s basketball team was unable to stage a late comeback Friday on the road and fell to Otero College 89-86 in the Region IX South opener.

“We started strong, then had about as bad of a 12-minute stretch in the first half as we could have,” said MCC Coach Dillon Hargrove.

MCC trailed 44-34 at intermission, then got down but 16 points three minutes into the second half. The Indians chipped away to make it an 80-75 game with 1.:31 left to play and made it an 85-84 game in the final 25 seconds, but The Rattlers iced the game at the free-throw line.

“We came back out of halftime and fought to get the lead and cut it to 1, but Otero did their job down the stretch by making free throws,” said Hargrove.

MCC shot 50.9 percent for the game, making just three of 15 shots from the 3-point line (20 percent) and hit on 25 of 35 shots from the free-throw line (71.4 percent). The Indians held a 34-30 edge and turned the ball over 19 times.

Sophomore Madison Peaster (Little Rock, Ark.) led a quartet of Indians scoring in double-figures with 27 points to go along with a team-high 12 rebounds. Freshman Nate Coley, (Little Rock, Ark.) scored 21 points.

Norris Bourne Jr. (sophomore, Beaumont, Texas) hit MCC’s only 3-pointers on the night – three – part of his 14-point night. Sophomore Tavarius Vinson (Chicago, Ill.) scored 10 points and freshman Vladimir Brkovic (Uzice, Serbia) scored seven points and grabbed 10 boards.

“We had some good production and good runs, but we need to put together a full game and eliminate the opponents runs,” said Hargrove. “The fight was there.”

Otero shot 43.5 percent from the field, 29.2 percent from the 3-point line on 24 shots, and went 22-for-27 from the line (81.5 percent).

The Rattlers improve to 7-9 on the season.

MCC goes to 8-9 as the team continues Region IX South play Saturday in Trinidad taking on the 7-11 Trojans, a team that lost to North Platte Friday night 79-76.

“We have to have short term memory and come back ready for another road game against a very good Trinidad State team,” said Hargrove. 

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