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MCC men can’t keep Blackhawks out of the lane

Southeastern scores 42 pts inside the paint

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE • Marshalltown Community College’s Goran Vidovic (21) glides to the basket during the second half of Wednesday’s Iowa Community College Athletic Conference game against Southeastern CC. Vidovic scored 11 points in the Tigers’ 71-66 loss to the visiting Blackhawks.

The gameplan seemed simple enough. Executing it was the real challenge.

Whether it tried man-to-man defense or a 2-3 zone, the Marshalltown Community College men’s basketball team couldn’t keep Southeastern CC’s guards out of the lane and the visiting Blackhawks carved up the Tigers for a 71-66 victory in Wednesday’s ICCAC Division I showdown at the Student Activity Center.

Southeastern (17-4, 1-1) sliced and diced through MCC’s various defensive looks throughout the game, going 27-for-44 from the field (61.4 percent) thanks to countless layups. The Blackhawks scored 42 of their 71 points in the paint as MCC (12-7) fell to 0-2 in conference play.

“We definitely didn’t guard penetration tonight,” said Tigers head coach Brynjar Brynjarsson. “They deserved to beat us here, I just thought it looked like we didn’t want to take advantage of an opportunity to play in a high-level game in conference play here at home.

“I thought we were lethargic and didn’t move as fast as we normally do. We were rusty and that’s on me, I’ve got to get our guys ready to play and keep [Southeastern] out of the paint.”

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE • Marshalltown Community College freshman guard Eric Ting (11) scores a buzzer-beating layup at the end of the first half against Southeastern CC on Wednesday at the Student Activity Center. Ting had 10 points off the bench in MCC’s 71-66 loss.

Brynjarsson waved his arms and clapped and yelled from his spot on the MCC bench, but there was only so much he could do from the sideline. The Tigers’ defenders got caught flat-footed and found themselves chasing their Southeastern counterparts to the hoop time and time again. The Blackhawks made just two 3-pointers in the win, yet MCC’s man-to-man defense still refused to sag off the player with the ball until it was too late.

The Tigers’ man-to-man defense did its job well enough in the first half that MCC took a 32-29 lead into the locker room, though it was a late surge by a pair of guards that got the home team its lead at the break. Oscar Kao collected his second personal foul with 3:29 left in the opening half and Southeastern leading 27-24, but his replacement made an instant impact. Eric Ting stepped in and knocked down a 3-pointer to tie the score, and he added an assist as Javarcus Word’s triple put MCC on top, 30-29, for the first time in nearly five minutes.

With time winding down on the first half, JJ Foster scooped up a steal and found Ting streaking toward the basket for a buzzer-beating layup to make it a three-point Tiger advantage.

“Eric came in and gave us some really good minutes and knocked down some shots and didn’t take bad ones,” Brynjarsson said. “I thought he was definitely a spark that helped us to be where we were at, especially at the end of the first half.”

MCC opened the second half in a 2-3 zone, but it didn’t slow down Southeastern’s attacking offense. The Blackhawks even dropped in their only second-half trey to chase the Tigers out of their zone formation, but the man-to-man fared no better. Three-straight SCC layups followed three consecutive fouls on the Tigers, and the Blackhawks eventually expanded their lead to its largest yet, 52-44, with nine minutes left.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

And yet, for as sluggish as MCC seemed on this particular night, the Tigers still stuck around to fight through to the end. Goran Vidovic swished his third 3-pointer to cut it to five, and another Ting 3 did the same damage four minutes later. Kao, playing with four fouls, splashed in a triple to make it a four-point game, 61-57, with 3:30 left, but another dribble-drive and layup at the other end restored Southeastern’s lead to six.

The Tigers then missed the front ends of a pair of one-and-one free throw opportunities — their only two missed free throws in the game — and the lead again went back to eight with 1:25 to go. A turnover by the Blackhawks led to a breakaway dunk for Mohamed Thiam, and two free throws for Vidovic made it a four-point game.

MCC employed a “hack-a-Shaq” strategy that sent 57-percent free-throw shooter Brandon Miller to the line, and he made 1-of-2 with 50 seconds still showing. Thiam’s off-balance 3-pointer dropped in to cut Southeastern’s lead down to two, 66-64, before the Blackhawks removed Miller from the lineup and went 5-of-6 at the charity stripe inside the final 27 seconds to withstand the Tigers’ last gasp.

“Even though we only missed two [free throws], they were both front-ends when the score was nearly tied and it could have given us the momentum to do something there,” Brynjarsson said. “I thought that was a crucial thing, but on top of that I didn’t think we were very aggressive with the ball. We didn’t drive in and settled for threes, we didn’t try to come off screens and attack the paint, so we’ve definitely got a lot of work to do to be successful.”

Patrick Jackson led Southeastern with a game-high 23 points, going 9-for-12 from the field and 4-for-4 at the free-throw line. DeAndre Barton poured in another 18 points, shooting 6-for-7 from the floor and 6-of-8 at the line.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

Thiam paced MCC with 21 points, 12 rebounds and five assists, while Vidovic tallied 11 points and Ting finished with 10. Kao, who on Wednesday was named the ICCAC’s D-I Player of the Week, settled for six points.

“I didn’t think that we were quite ready to play, which was disappointing,” Brynjarsson added. “[Southeastern] made more plays than we did down the stretch, but we were just flat. It was like we weren’t ready to play and we hadn’t thought about it and we didn’t create our own energy.”

The Tigers played their fourth game in a row without starting freshman center Eduardo Lane, as the 6-foot-10 Brazilian has sat out every game since the holiday break with a severly sprained ankle. His absence was something Brynjarsson thought his team could overcome.

“At the end of the day what we’ve got to make sure we understand is it’s not about the size, it’s just that our effort’s got to be better and that’s what it comes down to in my opinion,” he said.

The Tigers will need a supreme effort on Saturday when they travel to Ottumwa to face NJCAA D-I No. 2 Indian Hills. The Warriors (20-0, 1-0) haven’t lost this season.

Southeastern CC 71,

Marshalltown CC 66

SOUTHEASTERN (17-4, 1-1) — Jackson 9-12 4-4 23, Barton 6-7 6-8 18, Riak 0-1 0-0 0, Ware 3-10 1-3 7, Miller 0-0 1-2 1, Lakovic 1-1 0-0 2, Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Wise 2-5 0-0 5, Nwagbaraocha 3-5 2-3 8, Nikolic 3-3 1-1 7. TOTALS 27-44 15-21 71.

MARSHALLTOWN CC (12-7, 0-2) — Kao 2-8 0-0 6, Thiam 7-19 4-4 21, Word 2-6 0-0 6, Ndiaye 2-5 0-1 4, Vidovic 3-3 2-3 11, Foster 0-1 0-0 0, Ting 3-3 2-2 10, Edwards 2-9 2-2 6, Karadan 1-3 0-0 2. TOTALS 22-57 10-12 66.

Halftime–MCC 32-29. 3-Point Goals–Southeastern 2-8 (Jackson 1-2, Wise 1-2, Ware 0-4), MCC 12-27 (Vidovic 3-3, Thaim 3-10, Ting 2-2, Kao 2-4, Word 2-4, Foster 0-1, Edwards 0-3). Rebounds–Southeastern 23 (Miller 7), MCC 28 (Thiam 12). Assists–Southeastern 5 (Barton 2), MCC 15 (Thiam 5). Total Fouls–Southeastern 17, MCC 20. Fouled Out–Ndiaye.

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