After a wild regular season that saw the men's basketball team win the regular season conference championship and finish runners-up at the MCCC Conference tournament the team now turns their attention the NCCAA Central Region tournament where they have earned the #3 seed. The team will open up region play on Tuesday, February 27th at 6:00 pm where they will host the #6 seeded Warriors of Calvary University. 

The NCCAA Central Region tournament will be played at multiple sites across the region where home games are hosted by the higher seeded team. Should MCC win on Tuesday they would advance to the semi-finals where they would travel to the #2 seeded Falcons of Kansas Christian College. The Championship game will be hosted by the highest remaining seed on Saturday, March 2nd at 6:00 pm. 

During the regular season MCC finished the region schedule with a 6-4 record. The Thunder are led in scoring by seniors Dyelan Reed (14.4 ppg) and Jamie Juncal (12.2 ppg) while freshman Davis Rokey (6.1 rpg) and junior Cody Mericle (5.4 rpg) lead the team in rebounding. Seniors Micah Lovett and Mason Ellis led the squad at 2.75 assists per game. MCC finished the regular season with the 7th best scoring defense in the NCCAA holding opponents to 72.3 ppg.

Several members of the team were honored by the Midwest Christian College Conference with awards last weekend with seniors Dyelan Reed and Micah Lovett earning 1st team All-Conference honors. Senior Jamie Juncal and freshman Davis Rokey collected Honorable Mention All-Conference awards. 

"I'm grateful for the road that we've been on this season. There have been ups and downs, but we continue to push one another and move forward. We've grown a lot as a team and continue to learn how to win together. The postseason is why you play college basketball and I'm excited to see how we respond this week," stated Coach Strom. 

To advance to the NCCAA National Tournament for the 5th consecutive season the team will need to win the NCCAA Central Region Tournament. For more updates follow @mccmbb on X (formerly Twitter) and @mccmb_ on Instagram

Central Region Tournament Seeds: 

1. Spurgeon College (8-2)
2. Kansas Christian College (8-2)
3. Manhattan Christian College (6-4)
4. Central Christian College of the Bible (3-7)
5. Barclay College (3-7)
6. Calvary University (2-8)

Post season play is here for the Men's Basketball team. After finishing the regular season 15-11 overall and 12-0 in conference play the Thunder have clinched the #1 seed in the upcoming Midwest Christian College Conference tournament. The team has earned a first round bye and will play in the semifinals on Friday February 23rd at 8:00 pm against the winner of the contest between the #4 seeded Barclay College Bears and the #5 seed the Eagles from Faith Baptist Bible College. Faith Baptist Bible College is the host of this years' conference tournament. 

"Tournament time is always fun because the season resets and everyone is 0-0 going into it. Anything can happen," stated Head Coach Jordan Strom. 

The other half of the bracket will see the #2 seeded Ozark Christian College Ambassadors taking on the #7 seeded Eagles from Emmaus Bible College while Central Christian College of the Bible will be the #3 seed and play the #6 seeded Warriors from Calvary University. Should MCC win their semifinal contest they would advance to the Conference Tournament Championship game on Saturday February 24th at 5:45 pm. If MCC were to be eliminated on Friday night they would play for 3rd place at 1:30 pm. 

"We're very excited to go and compete this weekend," said Coach Strom, "I'm very grateful for the conference and the relationships we've built with the other school and it will be fun to compete with them up in Iowa." 

You can find tournament information, game schedules, times, stats links and live stream links here. 

Midwest Christian College Conference Tournament Seeds: 

1. Manhattan Christian College (12-0)
2. Ozark Christian College (9-3)
3. Central Christian College of the Bible (6-6)
4. Barclay College (5-7)
5. Faith Baptist Bible College (5-7)
6. Calvary University (3-9)
7. Emmaus Bible College (2-10)

For the second consecutive season MCC welcomed rival, Ozark Christian College, to Manhattan as the Thunder honored seniors Caden Hurla, Desmond Lindsey, Mason Ellis, Dyelan Reed, Jamie Juncal and Alex Sturtz in their last regular season home game in Howie's Activity Center. 

The contest was a highly competitive game seeing double figure leads for both sides. Ozark came out firing hitting three point shots on four of their first eight attempts while jumping out to a 16-6 lead. MCC would battle back through the remainder of the half to take a 43-36 lead into the break. Coming out of the break Ozark dug back into their bag knocking down three pointer after three pointer. The Thunder would battle and even build up a double figure lead of their own with 1:47 left to play. But the Ambassadors would not go quietly in to the night and would finish the contest on a 7-2 run. The Thunder would hold on to win 80-75 to improve their conference record to 12-0. MCC was led in scoring by Juncal with 20 and freshman Davis Rokey with 12 points.

"I'm proud of our team tonight. They battled through an emotional evening. Our seniors came out and started the game so well for us and then the bench unit jumped right in to support their guys when their turn came. We've come a long way this year," stated Coach Jordan Strom. 

Seniors Hurla, Lindsey, Ellis, Reed, Juncal and Sturtz finish their regular season as Midwest Christian College Conference champions for the 4th year in a row and finished undefeated in conference play for a second consecutive season. 

"This senior class has been a special one," stated Coach Strom, "They are selfless at their core and always play for the right reasons. I'm grateful to be their coach and I can't wait to see how they finish." 

MCC is the #1 seed going into next weeks conference tournament hosted by Faith Baptist Bible College. They will have a first round bye and will play in the semifinals on Friday February 23rd at a time still to be determined. Check back with mccthunder.com and MCC Athletics for more information as it becomes available. 

During a wild evening inside Howie's Activity Center the men's basketball team defeated the Barclay College Bears 98-82 behind 20 points from senior Dyelan Reed and 15 points a piece from Jamie Juncal, Micah Lovett and Jaxon Hurla. The Thunder dominated the glass out rebounding the Bears by 20 while bringing down 14 offensive rebounds. The first 5 minutes of the ball game MCC held Barclay scoreless starting the game on a 14-0 run. Barclay would claw their way back into the game and cut the MCC lead to only 4 out of the break. 

The second half saw more of the same as MCC would extend their lead to as many 22. With the win the Thunder have improved their record to 13-11 overall and 10-0 in conference play, clinching at least a share of the regular season conference title for the 5th straight season. With a win this weekend they would clinch the title outright. 

"I'm proud of this team and the way they've come together this season. We've experienced more adversity than we have in the past few seasons and could have shut it down a time or two, but they keep showing up for work and I'm grateful for that," said Head Coach Jordan Strom. 

MCC is back in action this weekend as they wrap up the regular season when they play host to Calvary University on Friday night and Ozark Christian College on Saturday afternoon. 

The men's basketball team jumped out to a 2-0 conference start after knocking off Emmaus Bible College 104-64 on Friday and Faith Baptist Bible College 86-56 on Saturday afternoon at the MCCC Classic. In Friday's contest vs Emmaus the Thunder were paced by senior guard, Micah Lovett, and sophomore guard, Vacario Triplett, with 17 points each. As a team, MCC out rebounded the Eagles by 22 and racked up 19 assists. Saturday's game against the host, Faith Baptist Bible College, saw MCC jump out to a quick 7-0 lead. For much of the first half the game was then back and forth before the Thunder finished the half on an 18-0 run over the last 4:50. The Thunder would slowly stretch the 17 point halftime lead to 30 by the time the game ended. Seniors Micah Lovett and Dyelan Reed along with Sophomore Jaxon Hurla paced the Thunder with 13, 12 and 11 respectively. 

"After a tough first semester it was good to see the guys jump out to a 2-0 mark in conference play. The process with this group has been a fun one and I'm excited to see where we can go from here," commented Head Coach Jordan Strom.

MCC will be on the road this Thursday at Randall University. The Saints beat the Thunder in Manhattan in November by three. MCC will then return home on Saturday for the first conference home game of the year as they play host to Central Christian College of the Bible, who also has started conference play at 2-0.