Broncbusters rebound after Indians' big win last week

GARDEN CITY, Kan. – One week after the McCook Community College men’s basketball team upset No. 19 Garden City in McCook, the Broncbusters picked up an 82-71 on their home court Tuesday.

“I thought we played really hard and thought we did a pretty good job defensively with the game plan,” said MCC Coach Dillon Hargrove.

The Indians started cold from the field not hitting their second basket of the first half at the 11:56 mark. Garden City took a 25-15 lead with 5:48 left in the half before MCC went on a 15-9 run to close out the half and trail 34-30 at intermission.

Three times in the second half MCC was able to get within three points and finally shaved the deficit to one point when freshman Da'Shawn Hall-Johnson (Bridgeport, Conn.) hit a layup with 4.34 left in the game to cut the lead to 67-66. The Indians were unable to close the gap and never had the lead in the game.

“I’m proud of the guys for giving us a chance late,” said Hargrove. “We had a chance to get it to a one possession game with about a minute and a half left, just couldn’t get the shot to fall and it turned into a fouling game at the end.”

MCC shot 45.3 percent from the field, made five of 19 shots from the 3-point arc (26.3 percent) and went eight of 13 from the line (61.5 percent). The Indians held a 35-28 rebound advantage and turned the ball over 14 times.

Garden City shot 51 percent from the floor, made 14 of 27 3-pointers (51.9 percent) and made 16 of 26 free throws (61.5 percent). The Broncs turned the ball over 17 times.

“Garden did a nice job of making shots and getting our defense spread out and attacking off of that,” said Hargrove.

Four Indians scored in double figures. Sophomore Madison Peaster (Little Rock, Ark.) and Hall-Johnson tied for game-high honors with 14 points and seven rebounds each. Freshman Nate Coley, (Little Rock, Ark.) scored 13 points with five rebounds and sophomore transfer Norris Bourne Jr. (Beaumont, Texas) scored 12 points with five points.

In addition to Hall-Johnson’s 14 bench points, freshman Vladimir Brkovic (Uzice, Serbia) came off the bench to score nine points with five boards.

The Indians outscored Garden City 48-20 in the paint.

Garden City had five players in double-digits led by 16 from Caleb Smith.

The Broncbusters, who were ranked No. 19 in the preseason improve to 3-1 on the year.

“We’re going to rest up tomorrow and get ready for our trip to Chicago this weekend,” said Hargrove.

MCC goes to 3-2 on the season and travel to River Grove, Ill. for a pair of weekend games in the Triton Classic. On Friday MCC plays No. 4 Triton College (2-1) at 7 p.m. followed with a Saturday game at 1 p.m. against Sauk Valley Community College (1-5).