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Tigers claw back

Edwards’ last-second shot lifts MCC past Iowa Central, 77-75

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON - Marshalltown Community College sophomore Kelton Edwards (23) puts up the game-winning layup to lift the Tigers over Iowa Central on Monday, 77-75, in the Student Activity Center. Edwards led MCC with 19 points, eight of which were scored in the final two minutes.

At the end of a game where neither team could maintain momentum on Monday night, the Marshalltown Community College men’s basketball team trailed Iowa Central by six points, 73-67, with under two minutes to go.

Sophomore Kelton Edwards hit back-to-back threes for the Tigers to cut the Triton lead down to two, then Nick Fleming went to the free-throw line and nailed both of his shots to tie everything up at 75-all.

Iowa Central got the ball back but missed a shot with 7.9 seconds left, giving the ball to MCC with a chance at the final shot. Fleming had an attempt at a layup but got the ball blocked, so with 0.9 seconds remaining the Tigers had one last chance for a game-winning layup.

Late into the out-of-bounds play and with no timeouts left, it didn’t seem MCC was going to get the ball inbounded, but Edwards made a move from the outside and came screaming down the lane, where JJ Foster found him for a buzzer-beating layup to give the Tigers a 77-75 victory.

After celebrating with his team, Edwards said though the final play didn’t seem like it was going to work, in the end it all worked out.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON - Marshalltown Community College sophomore JJ Foster (2) drives in for a shot while Iowa Central defender Jesse Moss, left, late in the Tigers’ 77-75 comeback victory over the Tritons on Monday.

“The play was the exact play we were supposed to be running, but at first we thought it broke down,” Edwards said of his game-winner. “It ended up that the guy started running at me, so I cut to the basket and had a wide-open lane. The guy went over the top to block it but that’s why I laid it up high off the glass, and I knew it was going in.”

Edwards finished the night with a team-high 19 points for the Tigers (6-5), 14 of which came in the second half and eight of which were scored in the final two minutes. In the middle of the second half Edwards was given a technical foul for disputing a no-call on one of his shots, and he said that gave him the motivation he needed to come in and help close out the win.

“I felt like after I got the tech I let my teammates down, so once I came in I kind of made up my mind to put the foot on the gas and turn it up,” Edwards said. “We couldn’t lose this game, the stakes were too high.”

In its previous five losses, MCC lost four while trailing by less than five points in the final two minutes and three by a combined 11 points, so head coach Brynjar Brynjarsson said it was about time his team prevailed in a close one.

“This was good for us, we needed one of those where we were actually on the other side of it,” he said. “The losses we’ve had, we haven’t come up with the plays towards the end and like I told the guys in the locker room we could have quit at one point when we were down by seven with two minutes left. I’m happy for them, I think we have to move forward from here and build on what we’ve got.”

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

While Edwards had the final shot and eight of the final 10 points for the Tigers, Brynjarsson there were players up and down the lineup who made big shots in the win.

“Kelton obviously had some big shots, we wouldn’t have been in the game without him,” he said. “Guys made free throws at the end, JJ steps up and hits two, Nick made two. We were on the fortunate part of them missing two free throws at the end, but it was good to see some execution down the stretch and guys stepping up and making plays.”

Iowa Central (6-3) did have a chance to go up by four points with about 33 seconds left, but Collin Shannon missed back-to-back free throws, right before Fleming hit his foul shots to tie the game. Tritons head coach Dennis Pilcher said his team opened the door and the Tigers stepped through.

“We didn’t get beat, we lost. That’s sad from a coaching standpoint when you lose a basketball game,” Pilcher said. “We had it there and we turned the ball over, we didn’t hit free throws. Give Marshalltown credit, they hung in there and took advantage of a piss-poor effort on our part.”

It was nearly MCC that gave the game away to Iowa Central at the end of the first half. With four minutes left before halftime, the Tigers led the Tritons, 34-25. Iowa Central went on a 20-0 run to close the half with a 45-34 advantage, thanks to some sharp shooting by Triton players Dallas Bailey and Aspen La Pointe, who combined for five 3-pointers in the run.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

Brynjarsson said his guys were scrambling all over the place during that huge run, and at halftime he wanted them to take a breath and remember what kind of basketball they play.

“We responded from them making some shots by hanging our heads and trying to go one-on-one and make a play,” he said. “Everybody was going to save the world without having to make a pass and we were just jacking it up on our own. That’s not how we can play, we have to play with a purpose and when we do play with a purpose I think we are actually a pretty solid basketball team.”

The Tigers took no time to go on a run of their own, starting the second half on a 14-2 run to retake the lead at 48-47. That run was sparked in large part by some great post play by Eduardo Lane, who finished just behind Edwards with 18 points and narrowly missed a double-double with nine rebounds.

Brynjarsson said the play from Lane and fellow post Bassirou Ndiaye were a huge reason why they pulled out the victory.

“We always want to play inside-out and Eduardo has been playing fairly well here of late and doing good things for us,” Brynjarsson said. “He needed a little wake-up call here in practice not too long ago and has responded really well. The biggest thing is he has to continue to get in shape so we can keep him out there longer, [Ndiaye] has to keep responding and giving us good minutes. I thought he gave us some solid minutes in some stretches.”

Lane and Edwards were joined by two other players in the double figures, as Fleming had 14 and Vidovic had 10. Both Fleming and Vidovic had timely 3-pointers down the stretch, and as a team the Tigers went 7-for-12 behind the arc in the second half compared to just 4-for-13 in the first.

The Tritons were the opposite, they shot 8-for-10 from deep in the first half but were just 2-for-10 in the second.

“Give Iowa Central a ton of credit, they came and played and played well against us,” Brynjarsson said. “They shot the ball with confidence, the big tell of difference here is they were 65 percent shooting the ball in the first, and 30 percent in the second. There’s obviously a little something I hope we had to do with that.”

Bailey led the Tritons with a game-high 26 points, though he was 0-for-2 from deep in the second half after going 5-for-5 in the first.

MCC gets very little rest before stepping back out onto the court on Wednesday for a home game against Kirkwood, starting at 7 p.m., but Brynjarsson said his guys have what it takes to avenge the 84-71 loss the Eagles gave them earlier this year.

“We’ve got a very good, very well-coached team coming in here on Wednesday and the guys should be excited to play,” he said. “We need to have a solid day of practice for prep tomorrow, we kind of have a tough stretch where we play Saturday, Monday, Wednesday, but we can rest once that game on Wednesday is over with.”

Edwards said he and the rest of the team feel more confident after this late-game, come-from-behind effort, and it could be the start of some good things brewing for Marshalltown Community College men’s basketball.

“Now we have a lot more grit to us, we showed we can pull it off in the end and play hard,” he said. “If we can add that to the entire game next game and the ones going forward, I feel like we will be well off this season.”

MEN

Marshalltown CC 77, Iowa Central CC 75

At Marshalltown

MCC (6-5) — Juan Coffi 3-8 1-2 8, Goran Vidovic 4-7 0-0 10, Nick Fleming 4-11 2-2 14, Kelton Edwards 7-17 2-2 19, Eduardo Lane 8-12 2-4 18, JJ Foster 1-5 2-2 5, Bassirou Ndiaye 1-1 1-2 3, Palmi Thorsson 0-1 0-0 0. TOTALS 28-62 10-14 77.

IOWA CENTRAL (6-3) — Collin Shannon 1-3 0-2 3, Royshawn Webb 3-8 5-6 11, Dallas Bailey 8-13 5-7 26, Jesse Moss 4-8 2-3 12, Jacorian Dalton 5-6 2-2 12, Bryce Armstrong 0-1 0-2 0, Quintavius Eagle 1-8 0-2 2, Aspen La Pointe 3-5 1-1 9. TOTALS 23-52 15-24 75.

Halftime–IC 45-34. 3-Point Goals–IC 10-20 (Bailey 5-7, La Pointe 2-2, Moss 2-5, Shannon 1-3, Armstrong 0-1, Webb 0-2), MCC 11-25 (Fleming 4-6, Edwards 3-6, Vidovic 2-5, Foster 1-3, Coffi 1-4, Thorsson 0-1). Rebounds–IC 31 (Dalton, Eagle 7), MCC 30 (Lane 9). Assists–IC 12 (Bailey 3), MCC 20 (Coffi 7). Total Fouls–IC 16, MCC 21. Fouled Out–Coffi. Technical Fouls–Edwards.

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