The opportunities eventually ran dry for the Tigers and Iowa Lakes wriggled away with a 56-53 victory at the MCC Student Activity Center.

Shenell Stewart led MCC with 17 points and Destiny Sao-Martinez added 15 points. The Tigers slipped to 11-7 overall and 3-5 in conference play, on a four-game winless streak since coming back from the winter break.

MCC had the ball with 12 seconds left, trailing 56-53, but couldn’t get a clean look at a game-tying bucket as Sao-Martinez instead opted to drive to the basket, unable to get the two-point basket to fall as time expired.

Tigers head coach Dylan Longley pointed to earlier miscues, including a turnover on an inbounds play with 21 seconds left when MCC was only trailing by one, as gradually adding up against MCC.

“That’s a killer, and even then we shouldn’t have put ourselves in that situation,” Longley said. “We’ve been talking to the team a lot about energy and consistency, and we just haven’t had 40 good minutes yet. … It’s tough when we only play seven or eight kids, but tonight we just didn’t play very well.”

A back-and-forth first half ended with Iowa Lakes on top 29-26, a lead the Lakers would ultimately never relinquish, growing the lead to 11 points before a seven-point Tiger spurt to end the third quarter, including a bucket from West Marshall grad Abigail Gradwell, got MCC back within four at the end of the quarter.

“When we played hard, we got steals, got in transition, open layups, open shots,” Longley said. “When we were the aggressor we got those runs.”

The Tigers were down 54-51 and got a couple back-to-back stops before finally getting a Stewart basket to drop with just over a minute left to play to make it 54-53.

MCC got another stop with 35 seconds left but the inbounds turnover allowed Zoey Wooten to hit two free throws on the other end for the Lakers to push the score to the final margin.

“That’s been the story of our year, first semester we won a lot of those one-possession games and now we’re not, that’s just how sports works,” Longley said. “We’ve just got to find a way to get out of that rut.”

Destiny Sao-Martinez had her highest point total since a Nov. 21 game against Carl Sandburg College on Wednesday.

“That’s something we’re going to need going forward,” Longley said. “I think we’ve got probably four kids that could score 20 points on any given night, and we’re just not finding a game where they’re all clicking, they’re kinda taking turns right now. We’ve got to get everybody on the same page.”

MCC heads to NIACC on Saturday and returns home against the William Penn JV team next Monday, Jan. 20.

Iowa Lakes 56, MCC 53

IOWA LAKES (8-12, 2-7) — Sarah Visser 0 0-0 0, Paige Martin 5 0-0 15, Zoey Wooten 4 3-4 12, Gracelyn Deputy 2 2-2 6, Tatyana Allen-Winston 2 0-2 4, Jewelisa Gill 1 0-0 3, Ryale Mosley 2 0-0 4, Morgan Bednarek 4 4-4 12. TOTALS 20 11-14 56.

MCC (11-7, 3-5) — Mia Sao-Martinez 4 0-0 9, Kimari Hall 1 0-0 2, Destiny Sao-Martinez 6 0-0 15, Kenijae Cherry 1 1-4 3, Shenell Stewart 6 2-9 17, Abigail Gradwell 1 0-0 2, Nunu Johnson 2 1-2 5. TOTALS 21 4-15 53.

IOWA LAKES 14 15 13 14 — 56

MCC 10 16 12 15 — 53

3-Point Goals–Iowa Lakes 7 (Martin 5, Wooten, Gill), MCC 7 (D. Sao-Martinez 3, Stewart 3, M. Sao-Martinez). Total Fouls–Iowa Lakes 14, MCC 15. Fouled Out–none.