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Big second half lifts NMCC over Malden 63-56
NEW MADRID, Mo -- Having lost eight of their last nine games, New Madrid County Central came into Tuesday's game against visiting Malden looking for positives.
They found plenty of them in a big second half, taking their first lead of the game in the third quarter and never letting go for a 63-56 win.
"This win was big for our morale," NMCC coach Travis Day said. "We've been in a lot of close games late and we're able to pull them out in the end. For us to be down at certain parts of this game and fight through it to get and keep a lead was big for us."
The story of the game was NMCC's turnaround in the third quarter after Malden controlled the entire first half thanks to a 7 of 12 effort from 3-point range and winning the rebound war 18-11.
NMCC never stayed far from Malden's rearview before the break, going into the locker room at halftime trailing by a possession, 27-25.
Coming out of the locker room, NMCC turned defense into offense, forcing seven turnovers in the third quarter while shooting 8 of 14 from the field to outscore the Green Wave 22-14.
"That's killer," Malden coach Andrew Halford said of the turnovers. "Most of them weren't even against their press. It was just us making bad decisions with the ball. When their press isn't hurting you and your hurting yourself that's not good."
By comparison the Green Wave's seven third quarter turnovers were more than double than the three they committed in the entire first half. They sured things up and committed only two more in the fourth quarter, but by then the damage was done.
Trailing 33-31 three minutes into the half, NMCC took the upper hand when switching to a 2-2-1 pressure defense resulting in three-straight Malden turnovers and an 8-0 Eagle run.
A Javarcus Word basket knotted the game up before Eddie Grandberry went in for a layup to give the Eagles their first lead since the opening minutes of the game, 35-33.
Palmer Campbell added a jumper with a Craig Beasley bucket capping the rally and putting NMCC ahead 39-33 with 2:36 left in the quarter.
"We forced them into turnovers and bad shots," Day said of the third quarter. "We rebounded the ball and came down on the offensive end and ran our offense and settled for nothing but good shots."
The Eagles maintained that six-point lead going into the fourth, 47-41, building it out to eight points with 2:37 to play.
A NMCC turnover set up back-to-back Green Wave baskets soon after and with 1:04 to play Malden was back within two possession at 58-54.
Happy to kill the clock, the Eagles were sent to the line soon after and converted 5 of 6 shot from the charity stripe in the final minute.
Ridge Littleton cut the Green Wave's deficit back to two possessions at 61-56, allowing Malden to call a timeout.
Instead of regrouping, however, the Green Wave watched NMCC kill 10 seconds off the clock after the break before getting fouled to effectively ice the game.
"We had too many breakdowns on both ends of the floor," Halford said. "Our defense was very poor. They put us in some bad positions and we couldn't adjust as a the game went on. Loose balls were theirs and our offense was stagnant and very perimeter oriented. That's not good for us."
NMCC finished the fourth hitting 10 of 11 free throws, going 16 of 20 on the game. Malden was a much rougher 2 of 8 from the foul line.
"Those 10 of 11 free throws were big for us," Day said. "It was one of those we had the right people shooting, but at the same time those were the kind of things were we were losing (in the past), but were able to win tonight. We're going to take this and we keep competing, keep playing hard. This was a big one for us."
The Eagles shot 22 of 47 (47 percent) compared to Malden's 22 of 50 (44 percent) effort. Malden out-rebounded NMCC on the game 26-21, but committed 12 total turnovers to the Eagles' eight.
Word led NMCC (9-11) with 20 points and six rebounds with Campbell adding 13 points to the cause. Johnnie Walker was third on the team with 12 points and Beasley pitched in nine.
"That's what we have to be," Day said of the even scoring. "We can't be a one-man team. Everybody has to help somehow and we did that tonight. We moved the ball around and I told the guys, 'you ran the offense beautifully tonight. You didn't settle, you moved the ball side-to-side. You made good baskets and the extra pass and something positive happened every time.'"
For Malden (12-6), Chience Booker and Dushawn Butler scored 20 and 15 points respectively. Tyler Ison totaled 11 points and seven rebounds while Broddrick Annesser grabbed a game-high nine rebounds to go with two points.
Malden 16 11 14 15 -- 56
NMCC 12 13 22 16 -- 63
MALDEN (56) -- Dushawn Butler 15, Broddrick Annesser 2, Tyler Ison 11, Malcom McBride 8, Chience Booker 20. FG 22, FT 2-8, F 17. (3-pointers: Butler 4, Booker 4, Ison, McBride. Fouled out: Ison)
NMCC (63) -- Palmer Campbell 13, Johnnie Walker 12, JaMonte Sykes 2, Craig Beasley 4, Javarcus Word 20, Eddie Granberry 9, Jaurous Haynes 3. FG 22, FT 16-20, F 11. (3-pointers: Campbell, Walker, Word. Fouled out: none)