Indians knock out Knights for fourth straight win

NORTH PLATTE – The McCook Community College men’s basketball team won its fourth straight game Tuesday on the road taking a 71-65 win over North Platte Community College.

“We had a lot of good production out of a lot of guys,” said MCC Coach Jacob Brandl. “Julian (Lual) carried us there in the first and just kept making plays.”

MCC led a 34-31 at the half, and then guards DaMiene Boles Jr. (Dayton, Ohio) and Beni Fungula (Stockholm, Sweden) took charge in the second half.

“Twin (Boles) and Beni were really good in the second half attacking and settling,” Brandl said. “I was really happy with the approach our guards had to tonight.”

Boles Jr. (Dayton, Ohio) led MCC with 20 points. Julian Lual (Calgary, Alberta) scored 16 points to go along with nine rebounds (four on the offensive end). Fungula came off the bench to score 12 points.

Ezichi Kalu (Lagos, Nigeria) scored nine points. D'Andre Dennis (Charlotte, N.C.) grabbed nine rebounds and Trey Summers (Greeley, Colo.) scored six points to go along with six rebounds.

“We talk a lot about having a professional approach and not getting too high or too low throughout the game and trying to stay consistent and taking one play at a time and Ezichi and D’Andre were the definition of that,” Brandl said.

After Kalu got into foul trouble early, the coach was pleased with the response from his post.

“He was really good in the second half and had some big baskets and then DAndre’s defense and rebounding was huge,” Brandl said. “We were able to go small and spread them out and Dre was tough guarding inside.”

MCC shot 44.8 percent from the field, made five of 21 shots from the 3-point arc (23-8 percent), and went six of 12 from the foul line (50.0 percent). MCC out-rebounded NPCC 43-38 and turned the ball over 14 times

North Platte shot 38.1 percent from the field, went six-for-20 from distance (30 percent), and shot 11 of 18 from the line 61.1 percent.

“Again, I’m just really proud of our group and the approach we have taken not only on game days but practice as well.”

North Platte takes its first loss in Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference play at 4-1, and 10-12 overall.

MCC goes to 9-18 and 3-2 in NCCAC play.

MCC wraps up the regular season this weekend at home with a pair of Region IX games. On Friday MCC will host Trinidad State (13-10 and 7-3 in Region IX South) in a game starting at 5:30 p.m.

On Saturday MCC takes on No. 22 Otero at 2 p.m. OJC is 21-4 and 7-1 in the Region IX South standings. This will be the final game for eight sophomores who will be honored prior to the game.

Despite going into the final week of the regular season as the last-place team with a 3-6 mark overall in Region IX South games, with a pair of wins MCC can still move up the standings and go to as high as the No. 3 seeded team for the Region IX tournament.

Otero leads at 7-1, Trinidad State is second, 7-3. (Trinidad handed OJC its first conference loss Tuesday 100-87.); Lamar is third, 4-5; Western Nebraska is fourth at 4-5. MCC moved from seventh to fifth Tuesday with a win and now stand at 4-6, Western Nebraska is sixth at 4-5. NJC seventh at 4-7; and North Platte moves to eighth at 3-6. Western Nebraska downed NJC 69-67 Tuesday night.

Also Saturday is the Dick Driml Chili Cookoff in the auxiliary gym and open to the public from 1:30 p.m. until halftime of the men’s game. All proceeds benefit the MCC Music Department.