Defense shines in Indians’ opening-night win

The McCook Community College men’s basketball team flashed a strong defensive effort over Eastern Wyoming at home Friday for an opening night 77-61 win.

MCC held the Lancers to 34.3 percent shooting, limited their 3-point offense to four makes in 22 tries (18.2 percent), and came up with 12 steals.

“I think our guys guarded well tonight and played hard on the defensive end which is what we’ve been working on so I can’t ask for a better effort there,” said MCC Coach Dillon Hargrove.

Freshman Djibril Diawara (Aulnay-sous-Bois, France) led MCC with 21 points. He made three of seven triples and tied for team-high rebounds with eight and steals with three. Sophomore Nate Coley, (Little Rock, Ark.) added 14 and made three of six from beyond the 3-point line.

Mo Diao, (Darkar, Senegal), the sophomore transfer from North Platte Community College scored 11 points and had four rebounds. Redshirt freshman Alier Alier (Bor, South Sudan) scored 10 points and nabbed six boards.

Freshman Sofiane Benragba (Montpellier, France) scored eight points and had eight rebounds.

“We just about had five guys in double figures and shared the basketball well, but we did have some first-game nerves, but overall guys showed up and played well,” said Hargrove.

MCC shot 49.1 percent from the field, made five of 19 triples (26.3 percent) and went 15 of 25 from the free-throw line (60 percent). The Indians held a 47-34 edge on the boards and turned the ball over 17 times.

“We gave up too many offensive rebounds (10) and turned the ball over too much, but I thought we did an overall good job out-rebounding them,” said Hargrove.

The Indians take on Laramie County Community College Saturday at 4 p.m. in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.

Up-to-date information about MCC men’s basketball including livestream links for home games, schedule, statistics, rosters, photos and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com