MCC Men to start post-season Saturday at North Platte

For the second year in a row the McCook Community College basketball team will begin post-season play against North Platte Community College, only this year's contest will be in North Platte. Region IX seeding, tournament pairings and game times were announced Wednesday and MCC drew the fifth seed and will play the fourth-seeded Knights Saturday at 4:30 p.m. in North Platte.

Otero ended up the top seed in the south division with a 23-6 mark overall and 9-3 within the south division. Trinidad State was second (14-11, 8-4), Lamar third (15-11, 6-6). With the fourth seed North Platte went 13-12, 6-6, MCC was 10-19 and 5-7 in Region IX South play. Western Nebraska (15-13, 4-8) was the sixth seed and Northeastern Junior College was the seventh seed (8-16, 4-8.

In other first-round play-in games Saturday, Lamar will host Western Nebraska at 4 p.m. (MT) and Trinidad State will host NJC at 6 p.m. (MT).

Otero gains a bye into the second round Region IX Tournament when the south teams will take on north division teams starting March 3. For the second round, top seeded Otero will take on the fourth-seeded north team. The lowest seeded south team will take on the top-seeded north team, Western Wyoming (23-3, 9-1 vs. north division opponents).

McCook split its two games with North Platte this year, dropping an 85-67 at home Jan. 25 then gaining a 71-65 win in North Platte Feb. 15.

Last year the two teams also met for a play-in game when MCC hosted the fifth-seeded Knights. MCC opened post-season play with a 73-68 win over North Platte, advanced to the second round in Cheyenne, where the team toppled top-seeded Lamar 89-82. In the semi-finals, the Indians beat Western Wyoming 90-82 to earn the team's first conference final appearance since 1997, where they lost to Northeastern Junior College.

Despite the deep post-season run last season in Coach Jacob Brandl's first at the MCC helm, the team struggled in the opening month of the 2021-2022 season. After splitting a pair of opening-weekend games, MCC lost 10 straight November games and fell to 1-11 on Nov. 27.

In December the MCC men won two of three December games and were 3-12 at the semester break. Eight of MCC's 12 losses during that time were to teams ranked in the NJCAA Top 25 polls at the time. Five of those teams are still among the Top 25 in No. 4 Dodge City (25-4), No. 6 Indian Hills Community College (25-5), No. 12 Snow College (23-6), No. 17 College of Southern Idaho (23-7) and No. 21 Hutchinson Community College (22-7).

MCC went 1-5 to start 2022 (4-17 overall), but turned things around going 6-2 since Jan. 30 capped by a 68-65 win over No. 22 Otero Junior College Saturday to close out the regular season.

MCC averages 70.4 points per game and give up 78 points per game. During the 6-2 end to the season MCC held opponents to 69.4 points per game.

The team shot 40.1 percent from the field, made 30.5 percent of its 3-point attempts per game and shoots 67.1 from the line. Defensively teams shot 44.5 percent from the field, and 33.2 percent from the arc.

Forward Julian Lual (Calgary, Alberta) averages 14-7 points and 9.3 rebounds per game to lead the team in both categories. Guards Damien Perry (Wareham, Mass.) and DaMiene Boles Jr. (Dayton, Ohio) are averaging 11.5 and 10.8 points per game.

After playing in one game during the first semester, Ezichi Kalu (Lagos, Nigeria) came on to average 9.5 points from the post along with 7.1 rebounds per game, shooting 54.1 percent from the field.

Beni Fungula (Stockholm, Sweden) averaged 9.4 points from the guard spot and D'Andre Dennis (Charlotte, N.C.) averaged 7.0 points and 5.4 rebounds.

A win Saturday would send MCC to the Region IX Tournament next weekend with times and pairings to be announced.

             2022 REGION IX MEN

FINAL SOUTH DIVISION STANDINGS

                                    DIV.    OVERALL

Otero                            9-3          23-6

Trinidad State                8-4          14-11

Lamar                           6-6          15-11

North Platte                   6-6          13-12

McCook CC                    5-7          10-19

Western Nebraska          4-8          15-13

Northeastern JC             4-8            8-16

REGION IX SOUTH PLAY-IN SCHEDULE

     Saturday First Round Games

        McCook at North Platte, 4:30 p.m.

        Western Nebraska at Lamar, 4 p.m. (MT)

        Northeastern JC at Trinidad State, 6 p.m. (MT)