MCC marches past Statesmen with another 100-point effort
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE Marshalltown Community College freshman Ryan Clair (9) scores past William Penn defender Jayden Ivory (4) during the first half of the Tigers’ 112-67 triumph on Monday at the Student Activity Center.
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE Marshalltown Community College freshman Ryan Clair (9) scores past William Penn defender Jayden Ivory (4) during the first half of the Tigers’ 112-67 triumph on Monday at the Student Activity Center.
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The days of getting 14 players into the game will come to an end, but it's been fun while it's lasted.
The Marshalltown Community College men's basketball team emptied its bench on Monday against the William Penn University junior varsity, stomping the Statesmen 112-67 for its second straight home-court win.
Twelve different players scored for the Tigers (3-1), who eclipsed 100 points in consecutive games for the first time in more than 14 seasons. MCC led 58-36 by halftime and continued to pull away thanks to five double-digit scorers.
Marshalltown scored the first 15 points of the second half to put the game away earlier, giving the Tigers a chance to delve into their bench before that course is corrected by increasing competition.
"I always enjoy seeing everybody playing, getting in the game, especially some of those guys that don't get as many minutes," MCC head coach Ryan Flack said, "but they come to practice and they're held to the same standard that everybody else is. They show up everyday to weights.
"It's great when we're able to get them in the game and just see smiles on their faces. It's a fun time and equal to that is seeing the guys that we take out that also have a smile on their face for their teammates."
Tom Guma got a game-hgih 19 points to lead MCC, shooting 7-of-8 from the field with three 3-pointers, and he pulled down six rebounds as well. Tristan Christopher made three 3-pointers and had three steals on his way to 13 points, while Joseph Hudson had 11 points and a team-high 11 rebounds.
Off the bench, Ryan Clair came away with 12 points, Jalen Carswell and Jahlil Manago had 10 apiece, Brandon Mathern had three more 3-pointers for nine points, and John Harrington scored eight points over the last 10 minutes.
The Tigers shot 12-of-26 from the 3-point line (46.2 percent) and have shot at least 45 percent while making 10 or more triples in all four games so far this season.
"We've really shot the ball well in the first 10 days of the season," Flack said, "so I would anticipate teams will eventually catch on to that a little bit and make us do some other things."
The game opened at a 10-all tie through the first five minutes before MCC used a 7-0 push to improve its advantage over William Penn (1-4), and it never got closer than four points after that.
The Statesmen scored early opportunities attacking the basket against MCC's man-to-man defense, which Flack had to remind his team wasn't going to cut it.
"Credit to William Penn coming in and playing hard," he said. "They had some physical bodies. The team we play next, they're gonna have guard that'll just bully their way to the basket, so we've got to do a great job defending, and it's got to be a lot better than it was tonight.
"We have a goal of just keeping the ball out of the red zone -- the paint -- so I didn't think we did a good enough job of that. It felt like at times we were OK with letting a guy drive past us and that's not going to be acceptable."
Jaden Redhead scored a team-leading 14 points for William Penn, while Alvyn Renfro-Hardy had nine and Jayden Ivory had eight. Kelon Seastrunk scored nine points off the bench for the Statesmen.
MCC hosts the Emerson Classic starting Thursday night against Bryant & Stratton at 7 p.m. The Tigers take on Lane CC (Eugene, Ore.) in Saturday's 7 p.m. finale. Lane is coached by Lavonte Davis, a former graduate assistant with the Iowa State men's basketball program. Davis applied to be an assistant under Flack before taking a graduate assistant position at Penn State.