Northeastern JC tops MCC Men 84-66 in home finale

Northeastern Junior College buckled down defensively in the second half holding MCC to 29-second half points Saturday on the way to an 84-66 win in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.

This was the final regular season home game for the Indians. Prior to the game MCC honored five sophomores: Nate Coley (Little Rock, Ark.); Lukas Gudavicius (Palanga, Lithuania); Vladimir Brkovic (Uzice, Serbia); Mo Diao (Darkar, Senegal) and Luke Sinisa (Auckland, North Island New Zealand).

The five sophomores also all started the game.

“I thought there in the first half we did an O.K. job switching back and forth defensively and we held our own rebounding,” said MCC Coach Dillon Hargrove. “At halftime it was 15-15 in rebounds.”

The two teams were tied at intermission 37-37.

“Congratulations to our sophomores, Nate, Lukas, Vladimir, Mo and Luke. Those guys have been good for us all year and I thought we did a good job going in tied at halftime,” said Hargrove.

The Plainsmen came out after intermission and clamped it down defensively outscoring the Indians 47-29.

“NJC came out in the second half and made adjustments and we didn’t,” said Hargrove. “They did a very good job on us defensively.”

Shooting statistics were not available after the game. NJC did make 12 triples and outscored MCC from the 3-point line 36-30. The Plainsmen made 12 of 16 free throws (75 percent) and finished the game with a 25-18 edge.

MCC made 10 of 14 free throws (66.7 percent).

Freshman Djibril Diawara (Aulnay-sous-Bois, France) led MCC offensively with 28 points. He made six of MCC’s 10 triples and went six-for-six from the free-throw line. Coley scored 16 and went nine for 10 from the free-throw line.

Dio led MCC with six rebounds. Freshman Justin Neubert (Durango, Colo.) had six points off the bench, hitting a pair of 3-pointers.

“We have to fix things now. I’m proud of the guys and I believe we get things fixed,” said Hargrove. “We have a doubleheader next weekend at Otero and Trinidad and hope to finish strong going into the post-season.”

The Plainsmen improve to 10-3 and maintain first place in the Region IX South standings with one game remaining on their schedule. They go to 18-9 overall.

MCC goes to 6-6 in the standings (fourth place) and 16-12 overall. The Indians are looking to be one of the four top teams in the region when the season ends Feb. 28. The top four teams in the standings would host a first-round post-season tournament game.

Elsewhere around the region Saturday, North Platte improved to 7-5 with a 98-84 win at home over Western Nebraska (5-8) and Southeast CC improved to 5-7 with a 95-59 win at home over Trinidad State (5-6).

Second place Lamar (7-4) hosted eighth-place Otero (2-8) in the only night game on the schedule.

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