Iowa Western set to visit MCC on Saturday

Game two and the midway point of the conference season greets the Marshalltown Community College men’s basketball team Saturday.

The Tigers welcome Iowa Western Community College to the Student Activity Center for a 7 p.m. tip with a head-start on earning a postseason home game on the line.

Southeastern CC’s forfeiture of the entire season means there are only four conference games on each ICCAC D-I team’s schedule this winter.

MCC (8-16, 0-1) and IWCC (17-6, 0-1) have already both dropped conference games to NJCAA D-I No. 4 Indian Hills, which has established itself at the top of the conference and is the likeliest team to receive a bye into the NJCAA Region XI finals.

That means the Tigers and Reivers are battling to host their play-in game to the finals.

“When you only play four games, they’re all must-wins,” said MCC head coach Brynjar Brynjarsson after his team routed Clinton Community College. “It will be a typical Saturday-night conference game where the team that plays harder, rebounds harder and makes their free throws and takes care of the ball is going to win.

“It’s really, really simple.”

Not so simple will be the Tigers’ task of slowing IWCC’s Xavier Munford, the conference’s leading scorer at 17.3 points per game.

The Reivers also get 14.1 from Devin Brooks, 13.8 from Alonzo Traylor and 10.3 from Kelvin Dixon.

“They’re talented. They’ve got guys that can score the ball,” noted Brynjarsson. “They’re very solid. They’ve got four guys averaging double figures. On a given night, anybody can (lead them in scoring). We’ve got to be ready.

“Our defense has to be tone-setter of the whole deal.”

The Reivers lost to the Warriors by six, 91-85, while MCC dropped its contest to IHCC, 91-73, in a closer-than-the-final-score-indicates type of game.

Iowa Western head coach Jim Morris had concerns about his depth before the start of conference play, but does have eight players that have appeared in at least 21 of the teams 23 games.

“I think Jim is a little deeper than he thinks. He’s got a nice team,” Brynjarsson said. “He’s got a nice, pretty even team of guys coming in.

“He’s definitely got a nice top eight, top nine that he’s playing.”

Marcus Bell is averaging nearly 16 ppg over the Tigers’ last three victories. MCC has won seven of its last eight, with the loss to Indian Hills, then ranked No. 1 in the country, the only blemish.

MCC finishes conference play with games at Ottumwa on Feb. 11 and at Council Bluffs on Feb. 25. Both games are scheduled to tip at 7 p.m.

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