The first game back from break can always be challenging and there was no exception to that rule on Wednesday night when both the men's and women's basketball teams welcomed in Champion Christian College for a regional double header. The undermanned women's team kicked things off at 4:00 pm with the Lady Tigers who came into the game with a 3-1 record. The contest started out slowly as the Thunder were able to hold the Champion attack at bay during the first four minutes. Coming out of a timeout, the Lady Tigers roared out to 12-2 run to extend their lead to 21-9 at the end of the first. The second quarter would see MCC play with more poise and balance as the Thunder battled back and forth, cutting into the champion lead before letting the Tigers extend it to 16 at the half. In the second half, Champion would push their lead out to as much as 42 points by the final whistle. The finals score was 43-85. The larges factor in the game was the unforced turnovers as MCC would turn it over 46 times and give up 51 points off of those turnovers. The battle tested Thunder will be back in action on Friday at 9:00 am when they take on the Emmaus Eagles at the conference classic in Kansas City. 

The men's team had similar headlines heading into the game as they were forced to play undermanned with 4 rotation players missing from the action. The Thunder entered the contest on a four game winning streak dating back to the first semester. This game would not have a different outcome as MCC battled back and forth with Champion during the first half, facing a deficeit as large as six points with six minutes remaining in the first half. The Thunder would find themselves down by 1 at the half. In the second half, Champion would come out strong and push the lead up to 5 with fifteen minutes to play. MCC would not fold and battled back to take a six point lead with eight minutes to play. The game saw lead changes 11 times and the score was tied 11 times throughout the game. The Thunder would win by a score of 73-71. Jordan White led the team with 24 points while RJ Johnson and Nate Awbrey would chip in 17 and 15 points respectively. Senior, Isaiah Collier, led the team in rebounds with 10. MCC will be in action on Friday at 10:55 am when they take on Emmaus at the conference classic in Kansas City.