Tigers too much for Mount Mercy
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE Marshalltown Community College sophomore Brandon Mathern (2) follows through on one of his four 3-pointers in front of the Tigers’ bench during the second half of Wednesday’s basketball game against the Mount Mercy junior varsity. Mathern had a career-high 12 points as the Tigers toppled the Mustangs 114-76.
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE MCC’s Jahlil Manago (22) drives through the heart of the Mount Mercy defense on his way to a layup during the second half of Wednesday’s basketball game at the Student Activity Center.
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE MCC sophomore Joseph Hudson (24) attempts a shot in the lane during the first half of Wednesday’s basketball game against the Mount Mercy JV. Hudson had 15 points and eight rebounds in the Tigers’ 114-76 victory.
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE Marshalltown Community College sophomore Tom Guma (8) goes up for the dunk over Mount Mercy’s Eran Levints during the second half of Wednesday’s basketball game at the Student Activity Center. Guma matched his career-high with 20 points to lead the Tigers to a 114-76 victory in their home opener.
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE Marshalltown Community College sophomore Brandon Mathern (2) follows through on one of his four 3-pointers in front of the Tigers’ bench during the second half of Wednesday’s basketball game against the Mount Mercy junior varsity. Mathern had a career-high 12 points as the Tigers toppled the Mustangs 114-76.
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE MCC’s Jahlil Manago (22) drives through the heart of the Mount Mercy defense on his way to a layup during the second half of Wednesday’s basketball game at the Student Activity Center.
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE MCC sophomore Joseph Hudson (24) attempts a shot in the lane during the first half of Wednesday’s basketball game against the Mount Mercy JV. Hudson had 15 points and eight rebounds in the Tigers’ 114-76 victory.
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE Marshalltown Community College sophomore Tom Guma (8) goes up for the dunk over Mount Mercy’s Eran Levints during the second half of Wednesday’s basketball game at the Student Activity Center. Guma matched his career-high with 20 points to lead the Tigers to a 114-76 victory in their home opener.
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The scoreboard provided a fair representation of the causal effect of the principles Marshalltown Community College men's basketball coach Ryan Flack was trying to impress upon his squad in Wednesday's home opener.
When the Tigers apply their practice ideals in games and play to the level of their standard, it makes winning a natural byproduct.
The MCC men marched to a 114-76 victory over the Mount Mercy junior varsity squad on Wednesday at the Student Activity Center, scoring more points than the program has piled up in a game in nearly four years.
Seven players scored at least nine points, all 14 players who dressed saw court time, and a more focused effort in the second half showed all the things Flack wanted to see from his team in front of a strong home-court crowd.
The Tigers (2-1) conducted a free youth basketball clinic prior to their home opener, and Flack forgot to close the registration portal on the school's website. It was worth it, he said, to have a cast of young fans in attendance.
"What a great turnout tonight," Flack said. "It was great to see a lot of those kids who came for our camp stay for the game and support us, and hopefully they had a fun time and liked what they saw."
Flack certainly did. The Tigers scored the final seven points of the first half to take a 53-44 lead at the intermission and used an 11-0 surge early in the second half to take command. A 3-pointer for sophomore Hassan Bush and six consecutive points for Tom Guma helped MCC move in front 64-49 after Mount Mercy (0-2).
Guma's first of three straight field goals came off a steal and one of his three dunks in the game, bringing the partisan crowd to its feet.
"We wanted to see how hard we wanted to play, playing together, and taking practice and putting it in the game," Flack said of the night's goals. "We wanted to see if we can play for 40 minutes, and we broke the game down into three trips and five trips (up and down the court). What did they do? What was their impact in that time?
"Right now our depth is good, maybe as good as it's been, but our bench is going to get shorter as time goes on. Luckily I feel like all 1-through-16 that played tonight gave great effort."
Guma matched his career high with a team-leading 20 points, and fellow sophomores Tristan Christopher and Joseph Hudson had 15 points each. Brandon Mathern tallied a career-high 12 points on four 3-pointers, Bush finished with 11 points and Jahlil Manago got 10.
Mathern, a sophomore guard from nearby Gladbrook-Reinbeck, had 14 career points in 20 games played in his MCC career prior to Wednesday's second-half eruption.
Mathern, who played on three state tournament teams, scored 482 career points with 105 3-pointers at Gladbrook-Reinbeck. On Wednesday night, he made as many 3-pointers (four) as he had in his 20 previous appearances for the Tigers.
"Brandon has just been really good at practice the last three or four weeks, and he has deserved everything that he's gotten," Flack said. "Tonight it was awesome to see him get out there -- and to see his teammates celebrate -- his success out there by making shots.
"This group has been connected ever since we got here on campus, unlike probably other groups that I've had. … Our connectedness has been as fun as I've been around for a little while, so that's just a credit to the guys."
Marshalltown scored 61 points in the second half, sparked by nine of their 15 3-pointers and a better pace of play. The Tigers pushed the tempo on both ends of the court to Flack's liking and the result was evident.
MCC's lead never dwindled below 11 after Guma's six-point spurt got the Tigers on top by 15.
"We want to play that way," Flack said. "We want to push the ball and play at that pace, and I didn't think our pace was very good in the first half. We talked about it both ways at halftime -- our defensive transition was awful, and even then our pace offensively, we were walking the ball up (the court), our wings weren't running hard and we had no rim-runners. So we've got to get that back into our game."
The Tigers bullied up a 43-22 advantage in rebounding and only turned the ball over nine times on their way to the program's top point total since beating the Graceland JV 130-31 on Dec. 13, 2022.
"We've had maybe one or two days of bad practices out of 34 total workouts, practices, preseason, and this is our third game," Flack said. "We've got a lot to get better at, but it's just fun to see the guys playing. They stay together through good and bad so far, but we have a big stretch coming up so we'll be challenged."
Mount Mercy resisted for as long as it could with a traveling roster of nine. Freshman Eran Levints scored 16 of his game-high 28 points in the first half for the Mustangs, making four of his six 3-pointers before the break. Mount Mercy held its largest lead at 17-13 after a Levints triple, and his last trey of the half had the Mustangs on top 33-32 with eight minutes to play.
Mount Mercy never led again.
"These guys played Iowa Central the first night out and it was a very similar score," Flack said. "All five of their guys could shoot it and they played hard and they played us really well for about 35 minutes. They gave us a good test here tonight."
Manago and Hudson, both Waterloo West graduates who transferred into MCC this season, had eight rebounds to lead the Tigers. Manago, who redshirted at Missouri Western State, has scored in double figures in each of MCC's three games so far this season. Hudson, who transferred from Cornell College, got his career high with 15 points.
Next up for Marshalltown is another home game on Monday against the William Penn JV, and the Emerson Classic is next weekend. The Tigers will take on Bryant & Stratton College on Thursday, Nov. 12, and Lane College (Ore.) on Saturday, Nov. 14.