Marshalltown, IA— The Marshalltown Community College Men's Basketball team batted until the end with Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) opponent Southeastern Community College, but the Tigers fell just short, 66-62 on Wednesday night at the Student Activity Center. Freshman Jamil Maddred (Camden, NJ/Camden) led the Tigers with 17 points.
In a game that featured seven ties and six lead changes, the Tigers found themselves tied at 61 with 59 seconds to play after a Tyler Miller (Louisville, KY/22ft Academy) free throw. On the next trip down the court, the Blackhawks buried a corner three-point shot and held off MCC in the closing seconds.
With the win, Southeastern improves to 4-3 in league play, good enough for third place. The Tigers fall to 2-5 in the conference and have secured the No. 4 seed in the upcoming Region XI Tournament. MCC will host No. 5 seed Northeast Community College at 7:00 PM on Feb. 22.
Indian Hills has locked up the top overall seed with a 7-1 record while Iowa Western Community College, who hosts MCC at 7:00 PM on Saturday, and Southeastern each have one game remaining to decide the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds.
After giving up seven consecutive points to start Wednesday's game, MCC responded with seven straight of their own, capped by a three-point shot from Guilherme Verardo (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Esporte Clube Pinheiros). Neither side led by more than two for the next eight minutes until the Blackhawks put together an 11-3 run to take a 25-17 lead. Jamil Maddred and Amir Maddred (Camden, NJ/Camden) teamed up to score 10 points in the final 5:40 of the first half along with a Nick Cross (Beverly, MA/Beverly) to pull within one, 31-30 at halftime..
Southeastern opened up the second frame identical to the first half, scoring the first seven points of the half. A pair of threes, one from Vincent Lasley (Tama, IA/South Tama) and one from Verardo cooled off the Blackhawks. Miller's running layup with 13:33 to play gave MCC its first lead since the 13:02 mark of the first half, 40-39. The Blackhawks answered with eight of the next nine points, but again the Tigers clawed their way back to take a 51-50 lead with 7:36 to go.
Miller's three-point shot beat the shot clock with 2:32 remaining to give MCC its largest lead of the night, 59-55. The lead slowly dwindled as Southeastern jumped back on top in the final minute to steal the win.
Amir Maddred added 11 points while Souf Mensah (Nantes, France/CCI) scored 10. Lasley led the Tigers with eight rebounds and five assists on the night.
