The MCC men's basketball team hosted the 3-2 Warriors of Little Priest Tribal College on Saturday night in the Student Activity Center on the Marshalltown Community College campus. The Warriors were coming off a victory over the Presentation College Varsity Reserve on Friday and started the game hot going out to an early lead. The Warriors would hold the lead until halfway through the second half when Mohamed Thiam would take over with two dunks that energized the crowd and turned the momentum to the Tigers and propelled the team to an 80-70 victory.
Mohamed Thiam would end the night with 22 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Guard Oscar Kao would end the night with 14 points in his 26 minutes of play and Javarcus Word would have a big night for the Tigers going 5-9 from the field recording 12 points. The Warriors were led in scoring by Ethan Steinbronn who ended the night with 22 points and Jordan Oliver who ended with 19.
The story of the first half was the large number of turnovers. "We turned the ball over to many times tonight, we will have to clean that up," stated Coach Brynjarsson after the game. "I liked the way the team battled back tonight, it was good to see that this team has the ability to stay focused and execute to get themselves out of a hole."
The Tigers where able to get back from being down by the nine steals the team forced. Juan Coffi recorded three steals for the Tigers with Oscar Kao recording two more. "Juan does a good job using his length and that allows him to get a few steals and Oscar also does a great job using his athleticism to create problems for opposing offenses," stated Assistant Coach Ryan Flack.
The 4-1 Tigers are now a perfect 4-0 at home this season with four more home games scheduled for the month of November. For more information on the men's basketball team or other MCC athletic teams visit mccathletics.com.