The Tigers trailed by as many as 15 points in the second half and battled all the way back to have a chance to reverse the outcome, but Deon’ta Lagway’s two free throws were off target in the closing moments of Wednesday’s Iowa Community College Athletic Conference clash.

Kirkwood (7-6), which had led for the first 35 minutes, 25 seconds, got a 3-pointer from 6-foot-8 freshman Caleb Delzell with 16.8 seconds left to take a one-point lead, and it withstood Lagway’s last two attempts from the charity stripe.

“You’ll look at those two missed free throws there at the end, but that’s not the game,” Flack said. “It really had nothing to do with it in my opinion. It was the 2-for-16 (3-point) shooting in the first half, it was giving up layups in the first half, not getting back on transition defense in the first half. We know that, and those are things we harp on most of the year too.”

The Tigers slipped to 7-3 overall, dropping their second-straight game since a two-week hiatus due to COVID-19 protocols. MCC had won seven in a row and was receiving votes in the NJCAA Division I rankings before its unscheduled intermission, but a portion of Wednesday’s second half provided a reminder of those past successes.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

After Kirkwood scored nine of the first 11 points of the second half to open up a 15-point lead, MCC slowly started to chip away at its largest deficit. Flack took a timeout with his team down 44-29, and within six minutes the Tigers had climbed to within six, 49-43, on their first 3-pointer of the second half. MCC shot just 4-for-27 from beyond the arc in the game, but David Roberts Jr.’s triple breathed sudden life back into the home team.

After Zyan Gilmore tipped in an offensive rebound, Roberts racked up the next seven points to make it a one-point game at 53-52. Lagway swatted Blake Brinkmeyer’s shot at the other end and the Tigers took their first lead moments later on Nuha Sagnia’s offensive rebound and putback.

MCC’s 54-53 lead added another point when Lagway went 1-for-2 from the free-throw line with 3:52 to play, but the Eagles answered with a Delzell layup to tie the score for the first time all night.

Lagway tried to regain the lead for Marshalltown with a driving attempt that was knocked away, and Lagway fell to the floor with an apparent injury. As Kirkwood tried to transition the ball quickly up the court, Gilmore stepped in for a steal and scored the go-ahead layup with 30 seconds remaining, 59-57.

Kirkwood’s ensuing possession found Delzell open from the top of the key, and the freshman’s ninth 3-pointer of the season splashed the Eagles back to the lead, 60-59.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

MCC turned once again to Lagway, who had delivered in similar moments earlier in the season, and he was fouled on his way through the lane with 3.5 seconds remaining. The team’s leading free-throw shooter, a 79-percent shooter who was 8-of-9 at the line at the time, missed the mark on both tries.

Roberts nearly snagged the offensive rebound before Kirkwood’s Noah King collected the loose ball and heaved it to the other end of the court as time expired.

“I can think of some other games where it rolled our way in those same situations earlier this year, and that one didn’t,” Flack said. “I don’t know what more we could have done. We got our guy the ball and he drew a foul. Deon’ta’s done a good job of knocking free throws down but [the game] doesn’t come down to those two. There were other areas of the game if we had been sharper it would have been different for us.”

Lagway led the Tigers with game-highs of 16 points, 13 rebounds and two blocked shots, while Roberts racked up 12 points off the bench. Sagnia finished with 10 points and nine rebounds.

King made three 3-pointers and led Kirkwood with 13 points, Delzell finished with 11 and Corvon Seales added 10.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

“The further into the year you go, teams are getting better or they should be getting better and every possession matters,” Flack said. “It comes down to one possession. We need to make our free throws, yes, however with that being said there were two other points elsewhere.”

MCC returns to action with a second-straight home game on Saturday at 3 p.m. against Southwestern.

Kirkwood CC 60, Marshalltown CC 59

KIRKWOOD (7-6) — King 5-10 0-0 13, Burnell 1-4 0-0 2, Seales 3-7 3-4 10, Keller 2-4 1-3 5, Brinkmeyer 3-7 0-0 6, Delzell 4-7 2-2 11, Walker 2-7 2-2 6, Gong 0-5 3-3 3, Dunson 0-4 0-0 0, Howard 0-0 0-0 0, Kimble 1-3 2-4 4. TOTALS 21-59 13-18 60.

MCC (7-3) — Stewart 1-5 0-0 3, Scott 2-5 0-0 5, Lagway 4-14 8-11 16, Sagnia 4-8 2-2 10, Roberts Jr. 5-15 0-2 12, Gilmore 2-4 0-1 4, Wilson 0-6 0-0 0, Vesey 0-0 0-0 0, Brown-Alvarez 0-0 0-0 0, Hamzic 0-0 0-0 0, Sheppard 2-5 1-2 5, Begovic 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 22-66 11-19 59.

Halftime–Kirkwood 35-27. 3-Point Goals–Kirkwood 5-24 (King 3-6, Delzell 1-3, Seales 1-5, Burnell 0-1, Brinkmeyer 0-1, Walker 0-1, Gong 0-1, Keller 0-2, Dunson 0-4), MCC 4-27 (Roberts Jr. 2-7, Stewart 1-3, Scott 1-4, Sagnia 0-1, Gilmore 0-1, Sheppard 0-1, Hampton 0-2, Lagway 0-4, Wilson 0-4). Rebounds–Kirkwood 29 (Keller 7), MCC 39 (Lagway 13). Assists–Kirkwood 8 (Seales, Keller 2), MCC 4 (four with 1). Total Fouls–Kirkwood 17, MCC 14. Fouled Out–none.