MCC men upset No. 20 Hutchinson

Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Dana Johnson McCook Community College's Skylar Johnson (31) gets open for a pass during MCC's game against Northeastern Junior College at the NJC Tournament this weekend. MCC lost 64-38.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. -- The McCook Community College men's basketball team upset No. 20 Hutchinson Community College 70-68 on the Blue Dragons' home floor at the Hutchinson Sports Arena Saturday night.

The game was the finale of the Airport Steakhouse Classic.

It was McCook's first-ever victory over HCC in five all-time meetings.

MCC improved to 5-3 and handed the Blue Dragons their first loss. HCC is 7-1.

Friday night, MCC lost to North Lake College,Texas Friday night 78-72 and HCC defeated Clarendon, Texas 88-78.

In Saturday's other game, North Lake edged Clarendon 84-83.

"We struggled to get going on Friday," said MCC men's Brandon Lenhart. "The enthusiasm and the effort for 40 minutes was an average of a 4 on a 10 scale. We were very disappointed about our performance on Friday night. North Lake was a very disciplined team who played their game and beat us in every facet.

"Even though we had a terrible performance on Friday, we were very optimistic about our game against Hutchinson CC. We knew we had to get things turned around in a little over 24 hours.

"We played with a positive attitude, played together, and played disciplined on both sides of the floor on Saturday. It was a close contest throughout, no lead was more than 9 points the entire game. We took the lead with a little over a minute and never let it slip, winning 68-70 on a lay -- up from Alonzo Louis with 26 seconds left in the game.

"This was a total team effort and we are very happy for our program, community, and community college. We know that we can be one of the best team's in the country, we just proved that if we believe in each other and do the little things, that great things can happen."

McCook's Myron Mingo led a game-ending 10-1 run against the Blue Dragons with back-to-back 3-pointers. His second with 2:47 left gave McCook its second lead at 68-67 and was the last of his 12 points.

HCC's Tom Shirley tied it on a free throw before MCC's Trey Mosby scored the final of his 20 points with 20 seconds left on a driving layup for the final 70-68 margin.

HCC missed on a 3-pointer at the final buzzer.

The Blue Dragons made 31 of 37 free throws for the game. HCC led 48-35 with 19:05 left in the game and 67-60 with 4:33 left.

McCook shot 56 percent in the second half, Hutch shot just 24 percent, and the Indians outrebounded the Dragons 22-19.

In the last 18 minutes, 5 seconds, the Blue Dragons scored just 18 points and made six field goals.

Ronnell Grant scored 10 points for MCC, Alonzo Louis 8, Ray Robinson 6, Keenan Gaskin 5, Justin Patton 4 and DeShawn Howard 3.

Mingo had 8 rebounds and Robinson 7. Mosby had 5 assists and Mingo 4. Mingo had 2 steals.

Darius Johnson-Odom led the Blue Dragons with 24 points. Devon McBride added 13, Shirley 11 and Cliff Dixon 11.

Four Indians scored in double figures in the loss to North Lake College. Robinson scored 17 points, Grant 16, Mosby 13 and Mingo 13. Marcus Landry added 5 points, Javoun Martin 3, Louis 3 and Gaskin 2.

Robinson had 9 rebounds and Grant 8. Mosby had 6 assists. Mingo had 6 steals.

Steve Johunkin led North Lake with 22 points and Nathan Pratt scored 20. Brad Renz grabbed 11 rebounds.

MCC hosts Colby at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

MCC women 1-1 at NJC tourney -- The McCook Community College women's basketball team lost to Northeastern Junior College 64-38 and defeated Fort Carson, Colo., 58-55 at the Northeastern Tournament Friday and Saturday at Sterling, Colo.

"What an exciting weekend of hoops played in Sterling, Colo., on the campus of Northeastern Junior College," said MCC assistant coach Carter Roe. "After a lackluster performance earned us a 3-point victory over Fort Carson, Saturday night's main event against Northeastern JC was a huge 40 minutes for the Indians of McCook.

"It was certainly the most focused we have been prior to a game, and having 16 freshman on the roster, that tells us that we are growing as a college basketball team.

Both teams played tremendous defense in the first half, causing the offenses to struggle to put points on the board. The halftime score was 23-12 in favor of NJC.

Five quick points from Britney Bunker to open the second half drew the score to 23-17 with 17:00 minutes to play. Unfortunately for us, that was a close as we would get and NJC showed why they are always such a dominant team in Region IX as they pulled away for a 64-38 win."

Britney Bunker and Sierra Guy led MCC with 9 points each.

"Emotionally we were led all day by Julia Hale, who was simply outstanding in not only leading with her voice but with her effort as well," Roe said. "If we continue to play as hard as we played on Saturday night, we are going to become a team that is not only difficult to deal with, but a team that is truly dangerous as well.

"We were lucky to escape with a win in an ugly game against Fort Carson. The final score ended up being 58-55, though we trailed for much of the second half."

Kylie Berry and Britney Bunker led the way offensively with 12 points each and Sierra Guy had some timely baskets and finished with 11 points.

"While we weren't pleased with the effort we are very happy to escape with a win," Roe said.

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