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Tigers drop 101 on Clarke JV

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • Marshalltown Community College sophomore Mohamed Thiam (4) drives in for a layup off a fastbreak during the second half of the Tigers’ 101-62 win over the Clarke University junior varsity on Monday night at the Student Activity Center.

It was clear in the first few minutes of the Marshalltown Community College men’s basketball team’s game against the Clarke University JV on Monday that the Tigers weren’t quite themselves on the court.

It had been 26 days since the MCC men last played on December 13, and the time off led to a bit of rust for the Tigers as they trailed the Pride 6-4 after the first few minutes. Once a couple shots started to drop for the Marshalltown men and they got their legs underneath them, the Tigers blew the doors off of Clarke, winning 101-62 in the end.

MCC head coach Brynjar Brynjarsson said his guys clearly didn’t start the game with the intensity he was looking for, but they rounded out well to earn their second-largest win of the season.

“I didn’t think we were playing with a whole lot of effort and purpose there at the beginning,” Brynjarsson said. “Obviously our last game was on December 13th, so it’s been a while and they had a break and we’ve been back for about eight or nine days now practicing, but I thought we played with much more of a purpose and urgency there in the second half.”

At halftime, the Tigers (11-5) had essentially taken over the game, jumping out to a 41-18 lead that would only grow through the second half. What truly put the Tigers over the Pride was their accuracy from behind the 3-point line, as MCC hit 16-of-38 shots from deep compared to only 4-of-16 for Clarke.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • Marshalltown Community College guard Oscar Kao (3) extends to lay the ball in during the second half of the Tigers’ win over the Clarke University junior varsity squad on Monday.

Oscar Kao led Marshalltown in both points scored and 3-pointers, as he drained 6-of-13 shots from behind the arc and finished with a game-high 24 points.

“Oscar has the ability to make some shots, and there are a lot of other guys that have that ability to do that, but when he gets it going he really gets it going and it was nice to see and that’s what we need from him all the time,” Brynjarsson said. “He needs to make open shots and he did that in the second half especially. He needs to play with a purpose on defense and make sure he minimizes some of the mistakes he tends to make sometimes.”

At halftime the Tigers had only hit four shots from 3-point land, but they exploded for 12 makes from deep in the second. Brynjarsson said that definitely helped the lead grow to as much as 50 at one point, but they did give up much too many looks on the opposite end.

“We made 12 threes in the second half and that helps tremendously,” he said. “That was kind of the difference, but we definitely need to understand that we need to guard better. We gave up 44 points in the second half, which was kind of disappointing.”

MCC dominated in almost every statistical category, leading in rebounds, 37-19, and assists, 21-5. They also had 17 turnovers compared to 12 for Clarke and 19 fouls, compared to 11 for the Pride.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

Brynjarsson said he loves to see the rebounds and assists, but it’s those last two stats that will keep him up at night.

“The 21 assists were great, rebounding was great but what sticks out to me the most was that we have 17 turnovers to go along with that,” Brynjarsson said. “So right there tells me we are still turning the ball over in some bad situations that are leading to points, we have to make sure we take care of that.”

Kao wasn’t the only Tiger with a hot hand, as four other MCC men reached the double digits against the Pride and 12 total Tigers found the bottom of the net in the team’s second-highest point total of the year.

Mohamed Thiam had a solid 14 points and eight rebounds as the other starter in double figures, while Edvin Tedesjo had 13 points with nine rebounds and Kelton Edwards and Palmi Thorsson each had 12 points off of the bench.

“Edvin has been working hard and has had a great attitude about it,” Brynjarsson said of the 6-foot-11 freshman from Stockholm, Sweden. “It was a good bench effort, I thought Palmi came in and made some shots and played well, played with a purpose. JJ [Foster] did the same thing, overall it was a good group effort and I’m happy everybody played, but we’ve got a tough one on Wednesday.”

Up next is a chance at redemption for MCC, as it travels to Iowa Falls on Wednesday for a matchup with Ellsworth Community College, a team that beat the Tigers 77-68 back in November.

Brynjarsson said his guys have to bring their best effort against the Panthers if they want to avenge their second loss of the season.

“We have to play hard, that’s the bottom line,” he said. “They really popped us pretty good here last time and outplayed us, we have to figure out who we are and what we have to do. We will have a great gameplan tomorrow and watch some film, get after each other in practice a little bit and be ready to play Wednesday.”

That matchup between MCC and Ellsworth is set for a 7 p.m. tip-off on Wednesday, preceded by the women’s game at 5 p.m.

Marshalltown CC 101, Clarke University JV 62

At Marshalltown

CLARKE UNIVERSITY JV — Jeep 3-7 3-3 9, Philpot 3-9 2-3 9, Meier 3-6 2-3 8, Dauphin 3-5 3-6 9, Harding 5-10 5-6 15, Hawthorne 2-6 0-0 6, Abraham 1-2 0-0 3, Aguilar 1-2 1-2 3. TOTALS 21-47 16-23 62.

MARSHALLTOWN CC (11-5) — Kao 9-17 0-0 24, Thiam 5-15 4-4 14, Word 0-2 1-2 1, Ndiaye 2-5 1-3 5, Vidovic 2-4 0-0 5, Foster 1-2 0-0 3, Ting 2-3 1-2 7, Thorsson 4-6 0-0 12, Karim 1-2 0-0 3, Edwards 6-8 0-0 12, Smith 1-3 0-0 2, Tedesjo 5-8 2-2 13, Molini 0-0 0-0 0, Trayvion O’Large 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 38-75 9-13 101.

Halftime–MCC 41-18. 3-Point Goals–Clarke 4 (Hawthorne 2-4, Philpot 1-2, Abraham 1-2, Jeep 0-1, Aguilar 0-1, Harding 0-4), MCC 16 (Kao 6-13, Thorsson 4-6, Ting 2-3, Foster 1-2, Karim 1-2, Tedesjo 1-2, Vidovic 1-3, Word 0-1, Edwards 0-1, Smith 0-2, Thiam 0-3). Rebounds–Clarke 19 (Jeep, Meier 4), MCC 37 (Tedesjo 9). Assists–Clarke 5 (Philpot, Dauphin 2), MCC 21 (Word 5). Total Fouls–Clarke 11, MCC 19. Fouled Out–Abraham, Tedesjo.

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