Ottumwa, IA—The Marshalltown Community College men's basketball team got off to a strong start, but fell down the stretch to No. 16 Indian Hills Community College, suffering a 76-60 defeat in Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) play. Floyd Preito (Philadelphia, PA/Constitution) tied a career-high with 21 points for the Tigers.
Preito carried the Tigers in the first half, scoring 15 points to give MCC a 35-32 lead at halftime. The scoring touch turned to Brandon Simmons (Harlem, NY/Teaneck) in the second half as the sophomore scored 14 points in the final frame, but the Warriors outlasted the Tigers in the Hellyer Center.
The Tigers found success in the first half from three-point range, shooting 7-14 from beyond the arc, but connected on just two of nine attempts in the final 20 minutes to drop the ICCAC matchup.
With the loss, the Tigers receive the No. 4 seed in the Region XI Tournament, set to begin on Feb. 27. MCC will host No. 5 seed Southeastern Community College at 7:00 PM in the Student Activity Center. Indian Hills clinched the No. 1 overall seed and will host the winner of MCC and Southeastern on March 1.
Saturday night's affair belonged to MCC in the opening half as the Tigers jumped out to a 4-0 lead off the bat. The Tigers' first three of the night came from Mohamed Thiam (Dekar, Senegal/Canarias) at the 15:03 mark to give MCC a 9-5 lead. Indian Hills took its first lead, 12-11, but MCC caught fire from there as Jamir Coleman (San Antonio, TX/Pro Vision), Berk Karadan (Izmir, Turkey/Izmir Zubeyde), and Juan Coffi (Barcelona, Spain/Canarias) converted on three-straight three's to put the Tigers up 20-12. Preito scored 13 of the team's final 15 points in the final eight minutes of the half to give MCC a halftime edge.
Simmons took over to start the second half, scoring the first eight points for MCC but the Tigers could not pull away from the home team. Indian Hills took its first lead since early in the first half at the 12:01 mark of the second half, 48-45 and slowly pulled away the rest of the game to sweep the regular season series from the Tigers.
Simmons finished the night with 16 points, eight rebounds, and two blocked shots in the loss.
MCC has one more regular season contest remaining, a home matchup with Northeast Community College at 7:00 PM on Feb. 25. The Hawks (21-7/4-2) are battling for the No. 2 seed in the Region XI Tournament with Iowa Western Community College (21-6/4-2).
