News

By Ryan Schlehuber, MCC Sportswriter | Photo by Laurie Shaffer

It was a bit of sweet revenge for the Montcalm Community College Centurions men’s basketball team with its 72-64 win over the Delta College Pioneers at home, Wednesday, Feb. 19.

The Centurions (6-6 MCCAA Northern, 12-14 overall) evened the season series after falling to the Pioneers (5-7 MCCAA Northern, 10-15 overall), 94-57, in University Center, Jan. 29.

The two teams are currently battling for fourth place in the division, with MCC holding the fourth spot by one game.

Wednesday’s game started much like the teams’ first meeting, where the Centurions fell behind to start the game, as the Pioneers shot out to an 11-2 lead.

Though the Centurions led the entire second half, the Pioneers kept pulling within reach, that is until freshman forward Brayden Clark (Carson City, Mich.), who returned to the team for the first time since Dec. 14, overcoming mononucleosis, tip-dunked the ball off a missed shot, giving MCC a 68-63 lead with 1:06 to go.

“Brayden had two monster hammers in that game and that was one of them,” Centurions Head Coach Zach Ingles said. “We missed him a lot because he gives us size on the wing that we haven’t always had. Delta is a really tough match-up for us because they’re really big. I’m happy that we brought the fight in this one.”

After Delta missed two consecutive free throws, the Pioneers were forced to begin fouling, as freshman guard Taylen Carver (Louisville, Ky.) dropped in consecutive free throws, pushing the lead to 70-63 with 48 seconds left. Delta could only manage a free throw from there and MCC came out with a well-needed win with two regular season games to go.

“The key to victory was our team staying together,” said freshman guard Dorian Allen (Winter Haven, Fla.), who finished with 10 points and six assists on the night. “We were fighting the whole game, and we didn’t allow any let-ups.”

In the first meeting between the two teams, MCC came out cold with its shooting, to which the Centurions couldn’t recover. In Wednesday’s game, it looked as though history was going to repeat itself, however, MCC dug its way out of an 11-2 hole and earned its first lead of the game, 14-13, on a three-pointer by Carver at the 12:42 first-half mark.

Ingles said his team may have been a little too wound at the beginning of the game, but it was because he got his players fired up to “bring the fight.”

“We got bullied in the last game with Delta. We didn’t fight,” he said. “So, I brought in the video of the fight between USA hockey and Canada that happened recently, and I played it on a loop for two days in our team room. I wanted our guys to bring the fight to them.”

Ingles said though the players may have been tired of seeing the video, that included several players scrapping against each other, they got the message.

“That indicated what tone we wanted to set, and I think we did that well,” Ingles said.

The Centurions never relinquished their lead, pulling up a 10-point lead at 31-21 with Allen’s layup with 6:25 to go in the first half.

Assistant Head Coach Asher Vissman said Allen’s performance in this game was impressive.

“He handles pressure so well and had some big buckets in the second half,” Vissman said. “He tends to be the X-factor in a lot of our games.”

Allen said his – and the team’s – success was staying focused throughout the game.

“What was working for me during this game was just staying locked in and knowing where to be on the floor, making sure my team was involved in every way and hearing everything our coaches said to us,” Allen said.

Ingles also praised Carver, who led the team in scoring once again, finishing with 23 points (scoring 21 of them in the first half alone), but also was really impressed with the play of freshman center Gabe Daniel (Erie, Mich.) and freshman forward Caleb Clements (Greenville, Mich.).

Ingles said the pair gave the team shots in the arm throughout the game, pointing out Clements came off the bench and cashed in several key shots and collected a handful of rebounds immediately, while Daniel’s defense was spectacular, locking down Delta’s big men inside all game.

“I was impressed with our guys in how they responded after that first loss to Delta and how we fell behind and came back in this game,” Ingles said. “We need to continue to push that super competitive base and continue to improve in practice and set up our expectations and execute against North Central Michigan Monday.”

Along with his 23 points, Carver had five rebounds and three assists. Freshman guard Mason Dunn (Big Rapids, Mich.) finished with 10 points and nine rebounds, followed by Allen with 10 points and six rebounds.

Clark finished with a total of eight points, Clements ended up with eight points and four rebounds, while freshman center Josiah DeMeester (Grandville, Mich.) had seven points.

Delta was led by Ja’Vion Blackwell, who had 11 points, and Evan Booker, who finished with nine.

MCC shot 46.6% (27-of-58) from the field, compared to Delta’s 39.6% (21-of-53). Delta had an advantage in free throws, making 20-of-35 to MCC’s 9-of-14. The Centurions won the rebound battle, 38-34, and points in the paint, 34-26. Their bench also outscored the Pioneers, 28-19.

UP NEXT: The Centurions will travel to Petoskey, Saturday, Feb. 22 to play North Central Michigan (2-10 MCCAA Northern, 5-13 overall) for the second time. Tip-off is 3 p.m. The Centurions are hoping to earn a series sweep again as they took a 73-63 win at home in the first meeting, Feb. 1.

With two games left in the regular season, seeding for the MCCAA tournament is still to be determined. As it stands now, the seeding match-up for the MCCAA tournament would be No. 1 Mid Michigan receiving a bye while No. 2 Bay College would host No. 5 Delta College, and No. 3 Muskegon would host No. 4 MCC.

MCC finishes out its regular season at home against Kirtland Community College (1-11 MCCAA Northern, 2-19 overall), Wednesday, Feb. 26.

“With the win last night, we put ourselves in a position to clinch the No. 4 seed,” Vissman said. ‘If we take care of business these last two games, we will be playing in a conference tournament game. It’s very exciting for our guys. They know how important these two last games are.”