The Manhattan Christian men and women's basketball teams pulled out a 4-0 weekend at home over two Midwest Christian College Conference teams. A Friday/Saturday double header saw MCC take on Emmaus Bible College and Faith Baptist Bible College.

Getting the weekend started, the Lady Thunder and the Lady Eagles took the floor were both seemed a little sluggish and struggled offensively for most of the night. The second half saw a back and forth contest, but Manhattan held their composer to pull out a 74-64 win. Sophomore Kayleigh Mannering lead the squad with 28 points, 24 rebounds and 9 assist. Sophomore Roni Harris added 24 points while off the bench Freshman Karrigan Dustan chipped in 13. 

One the men's side Friday night, the Thunder were hungry to get on the floor as this was their first game in about a week. Getting up 13 early MCC never looked back. Manhattan shot 50 percent from the field in the first half where Emmaus shot 25, seeing a 44-18 halftime score. Senior Jordan Marshall lead all scores with 16, and Sophomore Jordan White added 10. 

On Saturday, the women kickstarted the afternoon where once again both teams just couldn't things going offensively until late in the fourth quarter. Faith Baptist took an early lead but MCC got a few more shots to fall to go into half up 23-19. The second half was, for the Thunder too close for comfort, but with a lot of grit and faith late MCC prevailed 56-53. Not only did it cap off a 2-0 weekend but, Senior Jordan Lewis got to celebrate a win on her Senior Night. Harris lead all scoring with 21 and 4 steals. Mannering played another solid game with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Dustan chipped in 11 with Lewis added in 9 for the Thunder. 

Rounding out the day, Manhattan and Faith men took to the floor. This contest started fairly close but MCC kept the lead and started to extend the lead late in the first half, getting up 12 to take a 37-25 halftime lead. By the second half, the Thunder were firing on all cylinders and got out to a 19 point lead. Scoring 43 points in the second half compared to the Eagles 29, MCC sailed on to win 80-54. Four players finished in double figures, lead by Marshall with 14, White added in 13 while Senior Jeff Butler chipped in 10. Off the bench Sophomore Fred Handy scored 11 and pulled down 7 boards. 

With this weekends wins, the women move to 5-10 overall record and a 4-3 MCCC record. For the men, they go to 11-6 overall and 5-0 in conference. Both teams are back on the court this Tuesday, January 25, where they will host Barclay College. Women's tipoff time is set for 5pm with the men to follow.  

On Saturday, January 15th, senior Jordan Marshall was named to the Bevo Francis Award top 100 watchlist by smallcollegebasketball.com. The Bevo Francis Award was created by SCB to honor the top overall player throughout all levels of small college hoops from NCAA DII, DIII, NAIA, NCCAA and the USCAA. Jordan Marshall is one of three players on the list from the NCCAA DII level with the others coming from #1 ranked Great Lakes Christian College. Marshall, a transfer from Randall University, was the 2021 NCCAA DII Player of the Year and is using his final year of eligibility with the Thunder. MCC is currently 9-6 on the season and 3-0 in conference play. 

"I'm happy for Jordan. He's a tremendous player and a tremendous teammate. Bringing in transfers can sometimes be an adventure, but he has been nothing short of great for our program. While his individual success is fun to see, it's been more fun to watch this team come together and play for one another," commented Head Coach Jordan Strom.

The SCB Bevo Francis watchlist will be cut to 50 players on February 15th. 

Bevo Francis Award Watchlist

The Manhattan Christian College Thunder opened up Conference play this past weekend at the Midwest Christian College Conference Classic. 

Friday January 7, the women's basketball squad got things started with a match up against Emmaus Bible College. A very sluggish start saw the Thunder down early and just never could recover as a team. Sophomore Roni Harris lead everyone in scoring put up 40 points in the 87-72 loss.  

Due to COVID issues within Emmaus, the men's basketball team have to postpone their game for Friday afternoon.

Saturday January 8, brought a matchup for both against Faith Baptist Bible College. On the women's side, the Thunder had a slow shooting night in the first half but their defense started to click only allowing 7 points in the second quarter. Manhattan flipped the script in the second half, scrappy defense fueled the offensive end where 20 plus points were seen in both quarters for the Thunder to pull away with a 62-50 win. Sophomore Kayleigh Mannering end the game with a double-double with 22 points and 14 rebounds. Two others ladies finished in double figures, Harris had 19 and Sophomore Tristen Heiden finished with 13. Freshman Maggie Hayes pulled 10 rebounds. 

For the men, Faith Baptist wasn't going to make it easy for the Thunder. The first few minutes was a back and forth battle until the Thunder started to pull away, getting up 12 at on point. The Eagles were going away, fighting back to close the gap for a 38-32 Thunder lead into half. In the second half the defensive tempo increased seeing Manhattan Christian scoring 23 points off of 17 turnovers and not letting Faith get any closer than 9 points. Senior Jordan Marshall end the game with a double-double, 21 points and 10 rebounds to lead the team to a 79-64 victory. Senior Nate Awbrey chipped in 11 points and Sophomore Fred Handy Jr. came off the bench to add 13 points. 

Next up: Tuesday January 11 at Barclay College. Women tip off at 5pm with the guys to follow. 

The last game before break can always be tough to get up for. With thoughts of being home for Christmas fresh on the minds of the men's basketball team they welcomed the Trojans from Dakota State University to the HAC for one final game before going home for a small break. 

"That last one before break can always be interesting," said Coach Strom, "but these guys came out ready to play today and it was fun to earn a win against an NAIA team to finish the semester." 

The contest tipped off at 1:00 pm and was a back and forth affair during the first 12 minutes. MCC would find themselves up by five, 22-17, at the 8:42 mark on a Ferdinand Handy put back, but the Trojans would not be denied as they would cut the lead to only one less than a minute later on a Ronnie Latting jumper. Latting would finish one rebound shy of a double double for the Trojans with 17 points and 9 rebounds. Over the course of the next several minutes the game would go back and forth until the Thunder finished the half on a 7-0 run on back to back layups from Garrett Harmison and a 1/2 court running three pointer from Dyelan Reed to go up 37-28 at halftime. 

The second half would be more of the same as MCC and DSU would go back and forth with the Thunder holding on to a 10 point lead. DSU would cut it to a five point deficit at the 8:40 mark of the second half on a Deshawn Kelly layup. That would be as close as the Trojans would get as MCC answered back with a 10-4 run capped off by an and one layup from Jordan White with 6:14 left. MCC would be up eleven at that point and hold on to win the game by 9. MCC had nine guys find the scoring column and would assist on 20 of their 26 made field goals and 

"Proud of these guys for sure. Everyone in the gym contributed to today's win and we saw what we could do if we played for each other with everyone hitting their roles to perfection," stated Strom. 

The Thunder are now off until after the New Year when they travel to McPherson College for a quick game on January 3, 2021 before jumping heavy into conference play. 

After a great showing against two top NCCAA ranked Southwest Region teams last week, the Lady Thunder were in high spirits heading into their last game before break vs Kansas Christian College. From the start it was a slow-paced start for both teams, struggling to get the ball into the hoop. MCC would eventually take a 7-point lead with 5:00 minutes to play in the first quarter. Plagued with foul trouble for a huge chuck of the game, KCC would take a 41-29 lead into half.

The second half saw a different MCC squad, outscoring the Lady Falcons 36-33 but with the foul trouble, the defense just didn’t have the fight or scrappiness like normal. A late game surge for Manhattan just wasn’t enough, KCC went on to win 74-65.

“The improvement it there, I see and so do the fans. There are moments of greatness, and we just need to continue to build off of those, learn and grow. We now head into a decently long break, which is going to be good for everyone. We can recharge, take care of a few injuries and come back ready to get into conference play,” head coach Mindy Eckert commented.

MCC was led by three sophomores when it came to scoring, Kayleigh Mannering finished with 30 points, Roni Harris added 21 points and Karlee Wahlmeier chipped in 8.  Manhattan Christian (1-7) will be back on the floor December 31 with an exhibition game with Baker University.

On the Men’s side, Manhattan Christian jumped out to an early 11-4 lead before Kansas Christian called a timeout. MCC would continue to stretch their lead to 14 points, 21-7. But KCC would fight back with a run of their own, tying the game 21 all with under 10:00 minutes to play. A back-and-forth battle would see the Thunder down 36-34 going into halftime.

The Falcons would only extend their lead to 4 early in the second half before the Thunder would storm back taking the lead. A game that saw 7 ties and 4 lead changes proved much entertainment for the fans, especially in the final seconds. With 1.6 seconds left, the Falcons would tie the game 65-65. No timeouts left, MCC would have to go the length of the floor to try and win the game. Jordan White would inbound it with a 90 feet football throw to senior Jordan Marshall who would easily lay it in to win the game 67-65.

Marshall finished the game with a double-double, 30 points and 12 rebounds. He was joined in scoring by White, 10 points and 5 assist. Up next for the Thunder (5-5) will be a home match up Friday, December 10 with Doane University, 7:30pm tip-off. 

After more three straight exhibition contests against NCAA D2 competition the Thunder were ready to jump back into region play on Wednesday night as Dallas Christian came to town. The game would be the first countable game on the year for the Crusaders from Dallas as MCC would be playing it's eighth countable contest of the young season. MCC would sprint out to a quick 10-0 lead as senior forward, Jordan Marshall, would knock down a three ball to go along with a couple of layups. 

The Crusaders would answer back, however, as they would force a handful of turnovers and knock down some free throws to tie the ball game up at the 14:01 mark. After a Thunder timeout, junior guard Ferdinand Handy would knock down back to back three point shots to push the lead out to six. From there the Thunder found themselves in a slow grind as they gradually would push the lead out to ten at halftime, 40-30. 

The second half found the Thunder rejuvenated as they would push the lead to 15 points at the seventeen minute mark. The second half would play between 13 and 20 points as MCC was able to get key stops to keep the Crusaders at bay. The final score of the contest was 79-60. It was a balanced effort for the Thunder as they would assist on 21 of their 28 field goals. Jordan Marshall led the way with 23 points and 14 rebounds. 

MCC is back in action as they will travel to Arlington, Tx on Friday to take on the Patriots of Arlington Baptist at 7:00 pm. 

The end of October and beginning of November is here and with it comes the arrival of small college basketball season. The 2021-2022 men's basketball season for the Thunder is one that players, coaches and fans alike are looking forward to as the team returns the majority of the roster from 2020-2021 team that finished the season with a double OT loss to the eventual national champions, Johnson University, in the NCCAA II Elite 8. Included in that majority are 3 returning 'super' seniors in Isaiah Collier, Jeff Butler and Isaac Hagans along with transfer super senior Jordan Marshall and senior Nate Awbrey. 

"This might be, by default, the most experienced group of seniors that I've had the chance to coach when you take into account we have five of them and four of those five are using the additional year of eligibility that was granted by the NCCAA. That along with our lone true senior gives this group over 500 games combined of college basketball experience," stated Coach Strom. 

Joining that group of 'super' seniors are COVID sophomores Taymont Lindsey, Ferdinand Handy, Jordan White and Jaelon Carter who add another 250 combined games of experience and over 1500 career points. COVID freshmen on the roster are Caden Hurla, Ian Uphoff, Desmond Lindsey and Garrett Harmison along with 3rd year redshirt freshman RJ Johnson III. 

"The extra year granted by the NCCAA, NAIA and NCAA has given all of these college basketball teams an elongated timeline for student-athletes and it has created interesting challenges for all of us. One thing I am grateful for is more time with with each of our guys," Strom said. 

All of the returning roster will be joined by newcomers in transfer senior Jordan Marshall (Randall University), transfer junior Jackson Nicodemus (Johnson County Community College), transfer sophomore Alex Sturtz (Univ. of Wisconsin-Manitowoc), transfer sophomore Dyelan Reed (Cloud County Community College) and true freshman Cody Mericle (Manhattan-CHIEF). 

"I love the addition of this recruiting class," stated Coach Strom. "Each one of these guys brings something new to the team that we needed coming into this season and I couldn't be more excited to watch this team grow together." 

MCC finished the 2020-21 campaign at 18-11 after sharing the conference regular season championship with Barclay College and winning the conference tournament. The Thunder will kick things off on Tuesday, October 26th at 7:00 pm when they travel north to Nebraska to take on Doane University.