The MCC men's basketball team hosted the Lakers of Iowa Lakes Community College Wednesday night in the Student Activity Center. The Lakers entered the game 9-3 while receiving votes in the latest NJCAA Division II rankings. Both teams were looking to finish 2017 with a victory before the holiday break. The final game of 2017 saw nine lead changes as both teams seemed evenly matched. The final minutes saw the Tigers pull ahead by making consecutive shots to extend the lead to ten before the final buzzer, taking the game 84-74.
The Tiger bench made the difference in the game scoring 41 of the 84 points. Coming off the bench JJ Foster scored nine points and Berk Karadan scored eight but Kelton Edwards was the surprise of the night going 5-8 from the field and a perfect 7-7 from the free throw line for 17 points. Mohamed Thiam had yet another double double as he scored 25 points while grabbing 11 rebounds.
"Iowa Lakes always has a tough team and are always hard to beat," stated Head Coach Brynjar Brynjarsson. "It was great to see Kelton get out and play well and we hope he can continue that efficiency going forward. With a break ahead of us we can get a few guys healthy and rest up for the grind of the second half of the season."
The Lakers had five players score over ten points with Solomon Clayton leading the way with 18. Kyle Beisch, the Lakers leading scorer this season, scored 16 points, followed by Nick Wagner with 14, with Jacob Rau and Denis Joiner finishing with 11 and 10 points respectively.
The Tigers will be back in action Monday, January 8 when they host Clarke University JV in the Student Activity Center at 7:00. The game will be streamed live on mccathletics.com with links posted on the MCC Athletics Facebook and Twitter.
