Marshalltown, IA—Three players eclipsed the 20-point mark on Saturday night as the Marshalltown Community College men's basketball team defeated Northeast Community College 100-82 at the Student Activity Center. Mike Rodriguez (Boston, MA/Redemption Christian Academy) poured in a game-high 24 points.
No overtime was needed on Saturday after the two teams went to double overtime in their previous meeting. The Tigers reached the 100-point plateau for just the second time this year, both coming against the Hawks. Troidell Carter (Lilburn, GA/Meadowcreek) recorded his 10th career double-double after grabbing a game-high 10 rebounds to go along with 22 points. Merdic Green (Levittown, PA/Harry S. Truman) scored a career-high 22 points as well.
The Tigers hit the 50 percent clip from the floor for the sixth time this year as MCC shot 37-71 (52.1 percent). MCC knocked down eight three-point shots, including four from Guilherme Verardo (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Clube Pinheiros) who finished with 14 points. Jamal Gatali (Toronto, ONT/Downsview) scored 14 points to go along with eight rebounds.
Gatali opened up the scoring for MCC with a three-point shot as MCC jumped out to a 12-4 advantage early on. The Hawks cut the deficit to just one at the 11:07 mark, but Verardo knocked down his first three to put MCC up 21-17. Following a jumper from Gatali, Verardo drained another three to give MCC an eight-point edge. Green scored six of the final nine points in the half to give MCC a 54-43 halftime lead, the most points scored in one half for the Tigers this season.
Northeast came out firing to open the second half, making five of the team's first six shots as the Hawks opened with a 14-4 run to pull within one, 58-57. With the one-point lead, Verardo came up big once again, knocking down another three to spark a 10-1 run. MCC built its lead to as large as 21 in the second half to give the Tigers the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) win.
The Tigers remain in fourth place in the conference standings with a 2-5 conference mark and own the tiebreaker with fifth-place Hawks.
MCC travels to Ellsworth Community College for an ICCAC cross-division matchup with the Division II Panthers at 7:00 PM Monday night.
