MCC flies past Genesis One

The Meridian Community College Eagles got a solid performance off the bench from Thomas Brown and great second-half perimeter shooting to fly away with a 117-71 win against Genesis One on Wednesday night.

Meridian improved to 10-9 with the win and MCC coach George Brooks was pleased with the performance of his team, which had dropped three of its last four games entering the contest against Genesis One on Wednesday night.

"This was a great win for us and we had great play from lots of different guys on the floor tonight," Brooks said. "We struggled a little shooting from perimeter in the first half, but I was happy that we held them to only 71 points considering the speed of the game all night."

The Eagles came out with a hot hand and held an early 5-0 lead in the opening two minutes of play. Tommy Tillman and Mario Luckett drained a pair of baskets to give MCC the quick lead over Genesis One. MCC never trailed in the game and later extended its lead to 23-9 thanks to an impressive 10-0 run by the Eagles. Brown led the scoring run for MCC with six points off the bench which put MCC up by double digits for the rest of the game.

"I thought our bench play tonight was key in the first half," Brooks said. "He (Brown) really came off the bench and did some great things for us on offense and he also pulled some big rebounds that led to points for us."

Brown finished the game with 12 points off the bench in the win for MCC and all 12 of his points came in the first half. The Eagles led Genesis One 49-31 at the end of the first half and MCC continued to pull away in the second half. Otis Williams attempted nine 3-pointers in the first half and only drained one shot, but the second half was much different for the sophomore guard.

Williams hit four straight 3-pointers in the first seven minutes of the second half to give MCC a 66-31 lead over Genesis One.

"He got some good open looks in the first half, but couldn't connect," Brooks said. "I was proud to see him continue to keep shooting the ball and things turned around for him in the second half. We got some good looks all night and I hope that will start to build our confidence up heading in the final games of the regular season."

Williams finished the night with a game-high 20 points and Luckett also had a solid performance in the win for MCC with 17 points. Travis Thompson also reached double figures with 14 points and former Lamar standout Drake Nosco added eight points off the bench for the Eagles. Charly Dankwa chipped with eight points off the bench as well for MCC.

Nico Norris led the way in the scoring for Genesis One with 19 points.

MCC returns to action Saturday against Shreveport at the Graham Gymnasium. The MCC women tip off at 2 p.m. with the MCC men to follow at 4 p.m.