MCC Men Lose 87-77 Decision at Casper
CASPER, Wyo. – The McCook Community College men dropped their third straight game Saturday, falling to Casper College in the Casper Classic 86-77.
"Our guys battled, we played hard but we just couldn't make a shot and that was the story of this game," said MCC Coach Jacob Brandl.
MCC mounted a 10-point lead at 13:43 of the first half, but the T-Birds came back to lead 35-30 at intermission. The Indians went 0-for-11 from the 3-point line in the first half.
"We had a couple bad runs in each half. The first one gave them the lead in the first half but we came back and chipped away. We didn't start off the second half very well and had a couple bad runs there as well," said Brandl.
Casper stretched the lead to 18 points with 14:44 left in the game before MCC made up some points from the free-throw line, closing the lead to seven points in the final minute of the game but that's as close as the Indians came.
The coach noted that his team faced some first-half adversity when sophomore guard Trey Summers (Greeley, Colo.) went down with a serious knee injury.
"We could have completely folded and that could have taken the wind out of our sails, and we could have gone in a completely opposite direction, but our guys rallied around that and continued to fight," he said.
MCC shot 35.8 percent from the field, made just four of 30 shots from the 3-point line (13.3 percent) but made 25 of 31 free throw shots (83.3 percent).
"The most encouraging thing is that we had guys that were getting clean looks but we just couldn't make a shot," said Brandl. "If we continue to get those types of looks throughout the season, I'll feel really good about where we're at."
Brandl said he was pleased with how his guys stuck with the game plan and continued to attack the paint.
Sophomore transfer Ty Foster (Bronx, N.Y.) led MCC in points with 28 which included shooting 18-for-19 night from the free-throw line. Martel Evans (sophomore, Omaha Creighton Prep) scored 19 points. Freshmen Louie Tucker(Bristol, England) and Bryan Akanmu (Paris, France) each scored 10 points. Tucker led the Indians with eight rebounds, Akanmu had seven.
Casper shot 44.9 percent from the field, made eight of 25 shots from beyond the 3-point line (32 percent) and went 16-for-21 from the free-throw line (76.1 percent). The T-Birds outrebounded MCC 43-40.
Casper improves to 5-5 on the season. MCC falls to 2-7. Saturday's game was the second of six straight road games against Wyoming schools to close out the pre-holiday schedule. Next up for the Indians is a weekend trip to Torrington and Cheyenne as MCC takes on Eastern Wyoming Friday at 8:30 p.m. (CT) and Laramie County Community College Saturday at 5 p.m. (CT.)
