The Tigers have been in a funk lately.

Coming into Saturday afternoon’s game between Marshalltown Community College and Northeast CC, the Tiger men had lost seven of their last eight games, falling from a 7-1 start to an 8-8 record.

The main issue plaguing the Tigers this season has been consistency throughout games, according to head coach Ryan Flack. A lack of consistency again caught the Tigers off guard in the second half against the Hawks, but MCC regrouped and pulled out a 78-72 victory to move to 9-8 on the season.

After briefly going behind early in the first half, the Tigers jumped out to a 21-12 lead behind the strong play of Nuha Sagnia and Deon’ta Lagway.

Flack said the team’s inside-out approach was crucial to that strong start.

“We’re really just trying to throw that ball inside,” Flack said. “We’re not a great 3-point shooting team from a percentage standpoint but when you look at our big guys, combined they’re shooting about 60 percent from the field.”

After going up by as much as 11, the Hawks made runs to get back into the action. Both of those runs were countered by the Tigers, who took a 40-31 lead into the halftime break.

But the second half started out completely different — and the Tigers were caught off-guard.

Northeast came into the second half on fire, hitting three 3-points and a layup to tie the game at 42 and force a timeout from Flack.

He said the team got a little too comfortable in the game.

“We got away from what we were doing,” Flack said. “I felt we got comfortable. We’ve talked about how in a lot of our games this year we’ve played just one half, and want to put that together, and there were spurts in that second half but we just can never quite put a team away. I feel like we play to our competition.”

The Hawks took a brief 43-42 lead and later led 47-46, but going behind woke up MCC and the Tigers responded by taking control of proceedings behind more strong play from Lagway and Sagnia. Sagnia eventually fouled out and was in foul trouble throughout the game, but he scored 18 points and finished well inside. In MCC’s best stretch in the second half, Sagnia was working well with fellow big Lavarius Hampton in a high-low action. Lagway and guard David Roberts Jr. were also getting into the lane with precision.

Northeast was difficult to put away, and it wasn’t until there was under 30 seconds left with a 76-70 lead that the Tigers really were in the clear. Free throws from Roberts Jr. and Lagway sealed the Tigers’ second win in four outings. Lagway led MCC with 20, while Roberts Jr. scored 13.

With one more regular season game (Wednesday night at Southeastern CC) before conference tournament play begins, the win was a much-needed momentum boost for a Tigers team navigating a roller-coaster of a season.

MCC 78, Northeast CC 72

NORTHEAST (3-18, 3-18) — Anderson 7-19 3-4 20, Hiser 1-6 0-0 3, Decker 5-15 3-5 16, Lopez 4-8 1-1 10, Tew 6-15 2-4 15, Ross 3-5 0-0 6, Drummond III 0-1 0-0 0, Stec 1-1 0-0 2, Ring 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 27-70 9-14 72.

MCC (9-8, 9-8) — Scott 3-7 0-0 8, Lagway 7-11 6-9 20, Wilson 0-1 0-0 0, Vesey 3-7 1-3 8, Sagnia 8-11 2-5 18, Stewart 1-8 1-2 4, Roberts Jr. 4-10 5-8 13, Gilmore 0-2 0-0 0, Hampton 1-5 2-2 4, Hamzic 0-0 0-0 0, Sheppard 1-5 1-2 3, Begovic 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 28-67 18-31 78.

Halftime–MCC 41-30. 3-Point Goals–Northeast 9-28 (Anderson 3-8, Decker 3-9, Tew 1-2, Lopez 1-4, Hiser 1-5), MCC 4-14 (Scott 2-3, Vesey 1-3, Stewart 1-4, Sheppard 0-1, Roberts Jr. 0-2). Rebounds–Northeast 30 (Anderson 6), MCC 38 (Lagway 13). Assists–Northeast 9 (Anderson 3), MCC 11 (Roberts Jr. 3). Total Fouls–Northeast 21, MCC 17. Fouled Out–Sagnia.