TWIN FALLS, Idaho – McCook Community College men’s basketball team held off Western Wyoming Community College Friday in the Battle for the Boot and move on to Saturday’s consolation bracket championship with a 55-54 win.
“I’m really happy with our defensive effort,” said MCC Coach Taylor Shaffer. “Western Wyoming is a team that can score the ball, and we held them to 20 points under their average.”
The Indians led 55-50 with 3:03 left in the game and won despite not scoring after that. MCC will play Clarendon College (Texas) for fifth place in a 3 p.m. game Saturday. Clarendon (2-4) was a 76-71 winner over Western Nebraska (3-3) in the first game of the day.
A layup by Sophomore Adrijus Janciauskas (Marijampole, Lithuania) put the Indians up 55-50 with 3:03 left to play. The Mustangs missed a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession but after securing a rebound on the defensive end, Western Wyoming’s Augustus Merkys got a steal leading to a layup at the 2:12 mark to cut the deficit to 55-52.
MCC missed a layup with 1:41 left but Janciauskas grabbed an offensive board which led to a 3-point miss and WWCC took possession and called a timeout with 1:05 left to play.
It took four seconds for the Mustangs to turn the ball back over to MCC. After Shaffer called a timeout, the resulting possession resulted in a steal by Western Wyoming’s Carter Funk who was fouled and made both free throws with the clock stopped at 38 seconds and a 55-54 score.
MCC ran 21 seconds off the clock before calling a timeout with 17 seconds left to set up a shot. The play ended in a missed shot with the Mustangs grabbing the rebound and calling a timeout to set up their offense with .04 seconds left. Western Wyoming got a layup up chance, but it missed and MCC was able to grab the rebound and the win.
“I thought it was the first time all year we put a complete 40 minutes together where we didn’t have any stretches where we self-destructed and dug ourselves a hole,” said Shaffer.
MCC got off to a strong start and built their largest lead of the game, 20-11, with 6:25 left in the half but the Mustangs had a strong finish to the half and led 26-25 at intermission. Western Wyoming’s biggest lead of the game was four points just 1:14 into the second half.
The Indians shot 38.9 percent from the field, made three of 13 triples (23.1 percent) and was 10 of 19 from the free-throw line (52.6 percent). MCC had a 30-16 edge in points in the paint but were outrebounded by WWCC 41-34. The Tribe committed just seven turnovers.
Western Wyoming shot 34 percent from the field, made eight of 24 triples (33.3 percent) and was 10 of 16 from the free-throw line (62.5 percent).
Janciauskas came off the bench to lead MCC with 15 points and picked up four rebounds. The MCC bench outscored WWCC 30-24. Sophomore Tymere Singleton (Dallas, Texas) put in eight points with three boards off the bench and sophomore Justin Rushin (Charlotte, N.C.) contributed seven bench points.
Isayah Pankey, sophomore, (Dallas, Texas) scored 10 points from the point-guard spot. Sophomore Josue Kangudi, (Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo) pulled down a team-high eight rebounds with eight points and freshman Daniel Christou (Perth, Australia) had seven boards.
MCC goes to 2-5 on the season and will play Clarendon (2-4) for fifth place. A year ago in this same tournament the Indians finished in seventh place among the eight teams.
Western Wyoming goes to 0-4 and will play Western Nebraska in the seventh place game at 1 p.m. Saturday.
The Indians will be home the next two Tuesdays playing Central Community College Nov. 17 at 7:30 p.m. and host Laramie County Community College Nov. 24 at 6 p.m.
BATTLE FOR THE BOOT
College of Southern Idaho
Twin Falls, Idaho
Thursday Results
Game 1 – No. 4 College of Southern Idaho 89, Western Nebraska 56
Game 2 – Casper College 106, Clarendon College 93
Game 3 – No. 19 North Idaho 96, McCook CC 49
Game 4 – Eastern Florida State 77, Western Wyoming 73
Friday Results
Game 5 – Clarendon College 76, Western Nebraska 71
Game 6 – McCook CC 55, Western Wyoming 54
Game 7 – No. 4 College of Southern Idaho (3-0) vs. Casper College (2-2), 6 p.m.
Game 8 – No. 19 North Idaho (2-0) vs. Eastern Florida State (4-2), 8 p.m.
Saturday Schedule
(All times CST)
Game 9 (Seventh Place) – Western Nebraska (3-3) vs. Western Wyoming (0-4), 1 p.m.
Game 10 (Consolation Champs) – Clarendon College (1-4) vs. McCook (2-5), 3 p.m.
Game 11 (Third Place) – Game 7 loser vs. Game 8 loser, TBA
Game 12 (Championship Game) – Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, TBA
Up-to-date information about MCC basketball including up-to-date schedule and changes, livestream links for home games, rosters, photos, statistics and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website,
www.mccindians.com
