The final day of the Emerson Classic ended with a Tiger victory as the men's basketball team defeated Highland Community College 74-72. The day began with a 1:00 women's game between Des Moines Area Community College and Central Community College. The Bears would take control early and never look back as they coasted to a 93-54 victory. The 3:00 game saw Iowa Lakes Community College and the William Penn University JV squad battle. Iowa Lakes would blow out the Statesmen 131-65 behind efficient three point shooting.
Friday night the MCC women's basketball team took Central Community College to double overtime before securing the victory. Saturday, the team seemed to run out of steam, as they would fall to Moberly Community College 75-36. With 21 total turnovers and only one player over ten points, the Tigers now fall to 3-4 on the year. Two-sport athlete Celeste Barron Nicoletti would make her basketball debut in the second half as she recorded 20 minutes and hauled in two rebounds. The women's basketball team will be back in action on Tuesday when they host Ellsworth Community College in the Student Activity Center at 5:00.
In the toughest test of the year so far, the MCC men's basketball team came out on top in the Saturday night showdown with Highland Community College. The game would have multiple lead changes as neither team could pull ahead by more than five points. The Tigers would strike last to seal the victory 74-72.
"Tonight we played a better all-around game then what we seen so far this season," stated Head Coach Brynjar Brynjarsson. "This was a tough battle with a quality team, we made a few big plays when it mattered and didn't beat ourselves with costly mistakes and I think that was the difference tonight."
Leading the Tigers in scoring was sophomore Mohamed Thiam who was one rebound away from recording another double double on the season, as he finished with 24 points and nine rebounds. Oscar Kao would have another good game as he recorded 12 points and Berk Karadan would drop 11 points while grabbing five rebounds.
Now 6-1 on the season, the Tigers will host 5-1 Ellsworth Community College on Tuesday night in the Student Activity Center. Both men and women's games will be streamed live and can be viewed by going to mccathletics.com and clicking on the Tiger Live Stream tab.
