The MCC men's basketball team traveled to Cedar Rapids Wednesday night to take on the 5-2 Eagles of Kirkwood Community College. The Eagles were coming off a 94-69 victory over Black Hawk College last Tuesday and started the season ranked 14th in the first NJCAA preseason rankings. The Tigers were also coming off a victory as last Saturday the Tigers handed the Bears of DMACC their second loss of the season in a hard fought 77-68 matchup.
Wednesday night's matchup would come down to the final seconds as Kirkwood would take the lead 73-72 with eleven seconds remaining. Oscar Kao would drive and score on a layup to take the lead 74-73 in the final seconds to secure the victory for the Tigers. Kao would end the night going 6-11 from the field and 2-3 from the free throw line for 17 points. Although Kao had the game winner it was Mohamed Thiam that kept the Tigers alive in the close game. Thiam would end with 25 points on the night while also grabbing 7 rebounds.
"Tonight we played good team basketball," stated Head Coach Brynjar Brynjarsson. "We turned the ball over a few too many times tonight but overall it was a good team effort. It was good to see that with a game on the line our guys didn't flinch, and were able to succeed under pressure."
Eduardo Lane would end the night with 12 points after going 6-11 from the field and grabbed 6 rebounds in the first half but went scoreless in the second. The Eagles were led in scoring by Chris King who would go 7-16 for 17 points on the night. Following King in double digit scoring for the Eagles would be Tajen Ross and Doug Wilson with 15 and 14 points respectively.
The 8-2 Tigers will be back in action next Tuesday (12/5) when they host State Fair Community College in the Student Activity Center at 7:00. State Fair is currently 8-2 on the season while averaging over 90 points a game. The Roadrunners are led in scoring by sophomore guard Grant Gelon who averages 14.8 points per game. With four other players averaging over 12 points a game the Tigers will have to slow down a well-balanced attach. The game will be streamed live on mccathletics.com and can be viewed by clicking on the 'Tiger Live Stream' tab.