Trojans come back to deal MCC men 81-71 loss

Trojans come back to deal MCC men 81-71 loss

COLBY, Kan. The Colby Community College basketball team overcame a slow start to the second half but came back to hand McCook Community College an 81-71 loss Tuesday at the Colby Community Building.

"We didn't play hard for 40 minutes, maybe 20 combined," said MCC Coach Kyle Drennan.

Down 40-35 at halftime, MCC came out 9-0 in the first two and a half minutes of the second half to take a 44-40 lead. Colby hit a free-throw at the 16:07 mark to close within 44-41 but the Indians responded with five straight points to take an eight-point lead 49-41 at the 15:00 minute mark. The Trojans responded with a 10-0 run to take the lead 51-49 and with 12:08 left.

MCC tied the game at 56-56 at the 8:24 mark. Colby stretched the lead to 66-60 with 5:48 left and kept the Indians at arm's length for the remainder of the game.

"It's a game that we should have won but didn't and we must learn and move on," Drennan said.

Eddie Davis of Colby led all scorers with 27 points.

Sophomore transfer Raheim Sullivan (Toronto, Ontario) and freshman LeTre Darthard (Denton, Texas) led MCC with 13 points each.

Freshman Rahkiem Petterson (Midland, Texas) scored 12 points and sophomore transfer Justin Costello (Omaha) scored nine points, all coming from the 3-point line. Petterson and Costello topped MCC in rebounds with six each.

"We didn't have a good week of practice and it showed," Drennan said. "There is no switch you can flip to play harder. It has to be an every day thing. That's the beautiful part of basketball, what you put into it you will get back. It never lies to you."

The Indians out-rebounded Colby 41-38. MCC turned the ball over 18 times to 14 for the Trojans.

After making 11 of its first 12 free throws on the night (91.7 percent), MCC fell off to 46.7 percent in the second half to finish 18 of 27 (66.7 percent).

MCC shot 43.6 percent from the field for the game and made five of 15 shots from the 3-point line.

Colby shot 44.6 percent from the field, made 4 of 15 shots from the arc (26.7 percent) and made 19 of 27 free throws (70.4 percent).

MCC outscored Colby in the paint 18-12 and the MCC bench outscored the Trojans 30-9.

Colby improves to 4-1 on the season.

MCC falls to 3-3 and the Indians will play its final home game of the calendar year Friday. MCC will take on Western Wyoming Community College in a women's/men's doubleheader. The women's game begins at 5:30 p.m. with the men's game to follow. The Mustang men are 4-1 having split a pair of games with Western Nebraska. Western Wyoming and is among a group of teams receiving votes in this week's top 20 Division I poll.

"The response for tomorrow's practice will tell me a lot about this team," Drennan said. "We are really good when we play hard and with a purpose. Let's get that back for Friday night and put on a show."

Next week the Indians will head to Garden City for a 6 p.m. game Monday against the Broncbusters, currently 3-2 before heading to Casper, Wyo. for three tournament games in the Foss Motors Thanksgiving Classic, Thanksgiving Day, Friday and Saturday.

For more information on MCC basketball and all MCC sports, visit the official site of MCC Athletics at: https://mccindians.com/index.aspx?path=mbball

If you can't make it to the next MCC home watch it live at: https://mccindians.com/sports/2016/11/10/tw.aspx?tab=tribewatch