News

By Ryan Schlehuber, MCC Sportswriter

A cold first-half of shooting put the Montcalm Community Centurions men’s basketball team behind enough that it could not recover, resulting in a 94-57 road loss to the Delta Community College Pioneers Wednesday, Jan. 29.  

The Centurions (9-10 overall, 3-2 MCCAA Northern) snapped a two-game winning streak, mostly due to its 7-of-30 shooting in the first half, including shooting only 1-for-13 from the three-point line. 

Overall, the Centurions shot 6-of-31 from the three-point line and 35.3% from the field overall, shooting 24-of-68.  

The Pioneers (7-12 overall, 2-4 MCCAA Northern), meanwhile, more than doubled MCC in the three-point shots department, shooting 60%, going 15-of-25 from the outside range. They also shot well overall, hitting 61.4% of their shots, shooting 35-of-57.  

“It’s one of those things where you don’t show up to play, and we could tell when we got off the bus,” MCC Head Coach Zach Ingles said. “We were flirting with this kind of performance for the past 10 to 12 days. We just didn’t practice well. But hopefully with this good ol’ fashioned butt-kicking, it wakes us up.” 

As MCC struggled, Delta’s offense flourished, which jumped out to a 19-4 lead in the first half. The Pioneers stretched their lead to 29-4 until MCC finally answered back with a free throw by freshman guard Taylen Carver (Louisville, Ky.), snapping a six-minute scoring drought. 

The Pioneers outscored the Centurions 17-13 from that point to go into halftime leading 46-17. 

In the second half, with a changed starting five on the floor, MCC’s offense woke up, however, Delta’s never slowed down, preventing any comeback by MCC. 

“I changed up the starting five and put in the guys that were playing the hardest,” Ingles said. “They really meshed in that second half and they played hard, but it was an uphill battle at that point.” 

Carver scored 13 of his 14 points in the second half, hitting a three-point shot just after freshman teammate Geronimo Mozzi (Villa Ramallo, Argentina) sank his three-pointer two minutes in the half, making the score 49-23, Delta.  

Freshman guard Andrew Badder (Imlay City, Mich.) also stepped up in the second half, scoring seven of his 11 points off the bench and added a layup for MCC after Carver’s three-point make.  

“Badder just does everything right for us,” Ingles said, praising the freshman. “He’s the first one to get to practice and he always plays so hard. He and Makur drove us in the second half.” 

After a layup by freshman forward Caleb Clements (Greenville, Mich.) at the 13:39 mark to make the score 58-32, Delta regrouped and went on an 18-5 run, allowing the Pioneers to begin putting their offense on cruise control, leading 76-37 with 7:48 to go in the game.  

Along with his 14 points to lead the team, Carver had six steals and four rebounds, and freshman forward Makur Reclow (Louisville, Ky.) finished with 11 points and three boards. 

With the loss, MCC falls into a tie for third place in the MCCAA Northern with Muskegon Community College, both at 3-2, with Mid Michigan at 6-0 to lead the division and Bay College, at 5-1, in second. 

Ingles is expecting his team to regroup and refocus, with MCC still in the hunt to make postseason play. He stressed the importance of preparation for his young team. 

“Presence, that’s what we need to do better with upcoming games,” he said. “They need to be engaged. The way we prepare, practice, even walking off the bus and into the gym, all those things matter. We talked about how this month felt like we were playing on January 75th and how to fight through that and be engaged and be present.” 

Media inquiries, please contact:

Shelly Springborn
Director of Communications and Public Relations
shellys@montcalm.edu
989-560-0833