Saturday evening in Haviland, KS proved to be a fun one as the Thunder would erase a five point halftime deficit against the third seeded Eagles from Faith Baptist Bible College to win the game 83-64 and claim their third straight Midwest Christian College Conference Tournament Championship. 

MCC would advance to the championship game after knocking off the fifth seeded Eagles from Emmaus Bible College 93-52 on Friday night. At the conference awards ceremony prior to the game seniors Jordan White (MVP), Ferdinand Handy (1st Team) and Taymont Lindsey (HM) along with junior Dyelan Reed (2nd Team) were recognized as all-conference performers. 

"All the credit in the world to Faith. They compete so well all the time and are a tough matchup for us. I'm proud of our guys. A fourth consecutive regular season conference title and a third straight conference tournament title for this group of seniors is something they'll always have and something they should be proud of. Now, we need to turn the page and focus on our upcoming first round game at the region tournament," stated Head Coach Jordan Strom. 

All eyes now turn to the upcoming NCCAA SW Region Tournament hosted by Randall University in Moore, Oklahoma this coming week. The Thunder have earned the #2 seed in the North division and will play the #3 seed in the South division, Arlington Baptist University, at 3:00 pm on Thursday, Feb. 23rd. MCC has not won a game at the region tournament either of the last two seasons - including a heartbreaking 81-88 loss to Arlington Baptist in the 2021 region tournament. Should the Thunder win they would advance to a semifinal contest on Friday night at 7:00 pm against the winner of #1S Champion Christian and whoever they would play from the 4S/5S play-in game. 

The Thunder are currently ranked #8 in the NCCAA DII Coaches Poll and #4 in the NCCAA Power Ratings. All games will be streamed live at www.rusaints.com and updates will be made on social media. You can follow the team here and on twitter @mccmbb and instagram @mccmb_. 

NCCAA SW Region Tournament Seeds:

1N. Kansas Christian College
2N. Manhattan Christian College 
3N. Spurgeon College
4N. Ozark Christian College
5N. Barclay College 

1S. Champion Christian College 
2S. Dallas Christian College
3S. Arlington Baptist University
4S. SW Adventist University
5S. Randall University 

The Midwest Christian College Conference finished up play over the weekend, setting up this coming week match-ups for the Conference Tournament down in Haviland, KS hosted by Barclay College.

Starting off on the women’s side, the Lady Thunder finished up play by hosting Ozark Christian on Saturday. A very fast paced, up and down game but MCC battled all four quarters eventually falling 72-46. The Thunder finished with a 4-17 overall record, 4-8 in conference. Due to a 3-way tie with Calvary University and Central Christian College of the Bible, there was a draw for 4, 5 and 6 place. Manhattan ended up get the 6 seed for this weekend tournament where they will see Barclay College the number 3 seed on Thursday, February 16 at 6:00pm. Guaranteed two games the women will play on Friday; time will depend on if they win or lose.

For the men’s squad, they also hosted Ozark Christian this past Saturday. A night of celebrating five seniors, the Thunder shot lights out all night to pull out a 90-44 win. With this win, MCC finished the season 12-0 in conference giving them their fourth straight Regular Season Conference title. With one more game to play against Southwest Region Spurgeon College, MCC is setting at an 18-8 overall record right now. Heading into this weeks tournament Manhattan Christian has the number 1 seed and will have a bye the first round. They will play Friday, February 17 at 8pm against the winner of (4) Central Christian College of the Bible and (5) Emmaus Bible College. 

All games will be livestreamed on the Barclay College YouTube Channel.  

Manhattan Christian Thunder basketball squads closed out their non-conference season and are both gearing up to start conference play. The Midwest Christian College Conference will start this Friday, January 6 with a double header match up with Emmaus Bible College at the MCCC Classic held at Calvary University. 

The Lady Thunder had a tough non-conference schedule where they saw a handful of top NAIA teams. Having an 0-7 record heading into play this weekend doesn't reflect the true abilities this team equips. This season MCC has a strong inside game they are looking to focus on, but also a talented outside shooting to help balance it all out. With the tougher schedule, the ladies were able to progressively get better and kept a positive attitude. 

On the men's side, they are heading into this weekend with a 5-6 record. Navigating some injuries early on, also with a tough schedule, the Thunder are hoping to break a 4-game losing skid and get back on track. Returning 10 from last year and adding 5 new guys, MCC is continuing to come together, build and get better each day as a unit. 

Friday the ladies will start the morning off with a 10:00am tip time against Emmaus with the guys to follow at 12:00pm. They both will then turn around and play Faith Baptist Bible College on Saturday, January 5. Women will play at 2:00pm, men at 4:00pm. 

The first home game of 2023 will be Saturday, January 14 where MCC will take on Central Christian College of the Bible. 

For the first time in the young season the #8 ranked Thunder squad went on the road for a Top 10 matchup as they traveled to Overland Park for a date with the #2 ranked Falcons from Kansas Christian College. Throughout the young season both KCC and MCC had posted similar records with similar results. The game started out like a boxing match with both teams feeling out the process. MCC would jump out to an early 9-3 lead with under 15 minutes to go, but KCC would answer taking a one point lead around the ten minute mark. On the backs of their seniors the Thunder would push out to a first half lead by as many as ten points before finishing the half up 42-36. 

The second half would start in a furry of made baskets as senior, Ferdinand Handy, Jr., got hot knocking down four 3 point shots in the span of six possessions capping off a 14-2 run to begin the second half. KCC would get right back into it though and answered with an 8-0 run of their own. The game would become a back and forth affair in the second half ending with the Thunder taking home a 5 point win on the road against the #2 team in the country. 

"I'm proud of our team and how they've competed this season. After losing the senior class that we had last year it would've been easy to pack it in and go through the motions this year, but they've put in the time and effort required to compete and are playing well together," commented Head Coach Jordan Strom.

The Thunder will be back in action on December 8 as they travel to Madison, SD for a date with the Trojans of Dakota State University.