MCC men upset No. 19 Garden City 76-70

The McCook Community College men’s basketball team topped No. 19 Garden City Tuesday at the home-opener.

The Indians were able to overcome an 11-point first deficit with 14-43 left to play, fought back to take a 64-63 lead with 6:39 left, got up 72-63 at the 3:17 mark then battled down the stretch to ice the game at the free-throw line.

“I’m proud of the guys for playing really hard – coming back from a deficit and holding the lead and guys coming off the bench making big-time plays for us,” said MCC Coach Dillon Hargrove.

The 19^th ranked Broncbusters led at the half 34-28.

“We talked at halftime that we thought we were doing a really good job defensively because they have some really good players like Antonio Chol who is a transfer from Rutgers and all-around they have a lot of good players so holding them to 34 at the half was good but we weren’t making shots,” said Hargrove.

Freshman Da'Shawn Hall-Johnson (Bridgeport, Conn.) scored two points in seven first half minutes but scored 12 points in the second half including three critical 3-pointers.

“We talked about playing more lose offensively and not being scared to make the big shot because we have confidence in our guys to make those shots,” said Hargrove. “Da’Shawn comes in off the bench and hits three massive threes.”

Hall-Johnson hit his first 3-pointer with 6:39 left in the game to give MCC a 64-63 lead, hit another at the 5:22 mark to put MCC ahead 67-63 and hit his final one at the 3:32 mark to put the Indians up 70-63.

MCC shot 26.5 percent from the field in the first half and made just one of 14 shots from the 3-point line. In the second half the Indians hit 42.9 percent from the field and made six of 13 from distance (46.2 percent). From the line MCC was 21 of 29 (72.4 percent)

Sophomore Madison Peaster (Little Rock, Ark.) led all scorers with 22 points to go along with six rebounds, four assists and three steals. Hall-Johnson finished with 14 points and six rebounds and sophomore (Tavarius Vinson, Chicago, Ill.) scored 13 points on a five-for-seven night from the floor.

Garden City outrebounded MCC 42-38. Sophomore Louie Tucker (Bristol, United Kingdom) led MCC with seven rebounds and had five points before he left the game midway through the second half with a rolled ankle.

The Indians held the Broncs to 41.7 percent shooting for the game. Garden City was five of 24 from the arc (20.8 percent) and 15 of 18 from the free-throw line (83.3 percent). Chol led the Broncs with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Caleb Smith had 16 and Boston Harker had 13 points.

MCC improves to 2-1 and the team is right back at it Wednesday on the road at Dodge City for the Conquistadores home-opener in “The Dome.” The Indians also travel to Garden City Nov. 12 for a rematch with the Broncbusters. MCC’s next home game is Nov. 21 against the Hastings JV at 7 p.m.

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