MCC Heats Up True Hall Gym vs North Platte

The McCook Community College Men's Basketball team looked to have their hands full vs. the Defending Region IX Champions and National Tournmanet Qualifying North Platte Community College Knights. As always, this is a heated bitter rivalary between the two colleges, both located just over an hour apart from one another. True Hall gymnasium looked to be warm and ready for another heated contest between MCC and NPCC!

The MCC/North Platte game was scheduled to be played on Wednesday January 19th, but the weather and the good lord above had something else in mind. Somebody else had a plan, and that plan was for us to play on Thursday instead of Wednesday, and that's what we did. There was a lot of electricity on campus Wednesday, but after the games were postponed it was like somebody blew a socket out of the entire city of McCook.
Head Coach Lenhart and his basketball family seemed optimistic, but still had the feeling that the air had been taken out of their sails. Boy was he wrong!!!!

Both teams came out guns blazing. After the 2 minutes it looked as if it was going to be a battle the entire 40 minutes. Not the case, MCC took a 12 point lead in the 1st 5 minutes of the game, and North Platte made a push and kept it close for the next few minutes of the game. North Platte Community College came within 4 points with a barage of baskets and free throws by Karol Gruszecki (So. Poland), who led all scorers with 40 points. He got his baskets from everywhere last night, lay ups, 3's, and free throws (shooting 14 of the teams 16 free throws on the night). MCC just didn't have an answer for Gruszecki the entire night.

"We tried to make everything as difficult as possible for Karol and Perrin Ashley (Fr. Indianaplois, IN) tonight, we hope to come up with a different plan for the next time we face North Platte. Karol makes everything look so effortless, and he had an incredible game, Perrin hit a lot of shots late when the game was out of reach and when we let down defensively, which is a little disappointing but we will improve and move on."

The last 10 minutes of the 1st half were all MCC, they put their will on North Platte CC on both ends of the floor. MCC was getting stops and scores, hitting a high percentage of their shots, and just put the hammer down on North Platte to close out the half. During the last 3 minutes MCC was up by as much as 25 points, with NPCC making a small run to cut the lead to 17 points with just over a minute to go in the 1st half. MCC ended the half with a last second lay up by Antonio Dye, on what seemed to be a made basket and a foul, but it was a no call. McCook Community College 64 North Platte Community College 43. For those thinking WOW, that's a lot of points, the 2nd half was even better.

"To be up by 21 points at half-time vs. North Platte at any time is pretty special. We wanted our guys to go away from the half, staying hungry and maintaining our level of play the entire 20 minutes of the 2nd half. I asked my assistant, can North Platte Really outscore us by 22 points this half? He replied, if they do than we need to address some really serious problems," stated Lenhart.

MCC didn't exactly start where they left off, with a few missed baskets and not getting stops. North Platte got to the free throw line 3 out of their first 6 possessions, and you could kind of feel the tide start to shift a little bit. Thankfully for MCC the affect was minimial and the closest North Platte would get the rest of the night was 19 points early in the 2nd half. MCC was red hot from behind the 3 point line for the night making 18 of 32 three pointers they took. MCC went up by as many as 30+ points during the 2nd half, cruising to a 25 point victory. McCook Community College 129 North Platte Community College 104.

MCC had 6 players in double figures, doubling the amount of players in double figures for NPCC. Darius Robinson (So. Jacksonsville, FL) led the Indians with 26 points, 5 rebounds, and 8 assits. Michael Cutright (Fr. Las Vegas, NV) added 19 points and 11 rebounds, Eric Cutright (So. Zwolle, LA) added 18 points and 7 rebounds, Antonio Dye (So. Mishawaka, IN) added 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists, Shawn Tarver (So. Gary, IN) added 17 points and 7 rebounds, and George Pollard (So. Colorado Springs, CO) added 16 points, 11 assists, and 4 rebounds on the night.

"We are very proud of our Basketball Family here at McCommunity College, it was a total team effort. It was a great game for our Community here in McCook to watch and be a part of this special night,and we appreciate all of their great support. We hope to stay even hungrier for our upcoming challenges that lie ahead. We look forward to our game vs. William Penn University on Saturday," Lenhart said.

MCC stays at home for another contest vs William Penn University this Saturday, January 22nd, game time 7:30 pm in True Hall Gymnasium, and another Sub-Region Match-Up will take place in Scottsbluff, NE on Tuesday January 26th Women 5:30 pm and Men at 7:30pm (Mountain Time). Next week is Homecoming week, in which a lot of activities will be taking place leading up to MCC's Contest vs. Northeast Community College, women play at 2:00 pm and Men Follow at 4:00 p.m. The chili cook off will follow after the Men's game!