MCC men win at Torrington, 77-68

TORRINGTON, Wyo. – The McCook Community College men’s basketball team downed Eastern Wyoming Community College Friday 77-68.

“This was a gritty, tough win tonight because this is a tough place to play and Eastern Wyoming is a very tough team, they play really hard,” said MCC Assistant Drake Henderson.

The leading scorer in the Region IX South division, Djibril Diawara, led MCC in the win over the Lancers from the Region IX North. The freshman from Aulnay-sous-Bois, France scored 27 points to lead the Indians to their second win of the season over the Lancers. Entering the game, Diawara topped the Region IX scoring charts, averaging 19.3 points a game.

The Indians led 17-10 midway through the first half, and when the Lancers cut the lead to 30-26 with 1:51 left in the first half, a 3-pointer by freshman Sofiane Benragba, (Montpellier, France) helped MCC lead at halftime 35-26.

MCC went on an 11-0 scoring run early in the second half to stretch the lead to 47-32 with 15:02 left to play and fended off with a lead that remained at around 10 points for the remainder of the game.

“It was not our best offensive showing but we made plays when we needed to in order to win the game,” said Henderson.

Redshirt freshman Alier Alier, (Bor, South Sudan) scored 19 points with five rebounds. Sophomore Mo Diao, (Darkar, Senegal) led the Indians with 13 rebounds along with four points. Benragba finished with 10 rebounds and seven boards. 

“I thought our bigs did a fantastic job rebounding, double digits from Mo and Sofiane helped us out tremendously,” said Henderson.

The Indians outrebounded the Lancers 44-37.

Sophomore Nate Coley, (Little Rock, Ark.), the second leading scorer in the south region (18.6 points) scored 12 points and led the team with five assists. Sophomore Lukas Gudavicius, (Palanga, Lithuania) had eight points and four boards.

MCC shot 48.4 percent from the field, made six of 20 3-pointers (30 percent) and made 11 of 17 free throws. EWCC shot 34.6 percent from the field, made seven of 32 shots from distance (21.9 percent) and went five-for-five from the line.

“I thought we did a great job, keeping them under 35 percent from the field, 22 percent from 3, and we did a good job not fouling and keeping them off the free throw line,” said Henderson.

The Lancers fall to 3-11 on the year. MCC swept both games in the season series including the season opening win at home 76-61 on Halloween night.

MCC improves to 9-3 as the Tribe will take on Laramie County Community College Saturday in Cheyenne. The Golden Eagles are 5-5. The Indians rolled to a 98-80 win when these two teams met Nov. 1 in McCook.

“We’re glad to get out of Torrington with a gritty win,” said Henderson. “We’re going to prepare for a talented Laramie team tomorrow and try to come home 2-0 this weekend.”

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