PORT HURON, Mich. – No. 6 Macomb Men's Basketball completed a 2-0 weekend at the Skippers New Year's Classic with an emphatic 86-50 victory over the No. 19 Cougars of Kalamazoo Valley Community College on Saturday (Jan. 6) in Port Huron. The Monarchs never trailed in the wire-to-wire victory to improve to 11-2 overall on their way to sweeping the season series with the 19^th ranked Cougars.

The win also lifted the Monarchs' record vs. KVCC to 4-0 over the past two seasons, including a victory in the 2022-23 NJCAA District C Championship to punch a ticket to last year's National Championship.

The Monarchs went up 5-0 early and never looked back on their way to leading by as many as 12 in the opening 20 minutes before taking a 41-32 edge into the halftime break. Second half action saw the Monarchs clamp down defensively, holding the Cougars to 18 points on 6-of-30 shooting (20%) overall and 2-of-11 (18.2%) from 3-point land in the latter stanza.

Offensively, the Monarchs were steady throughout on their way to posting 41 points in the opening half and 45 points over the final 20 minutes of action behind a 55.8% shooting clip overall and a 46.7% effort from downtown.

The Monarchs out-rebounded the Cougars 53-28 while earning advantages in points in the paint (42-24) and points off turnovers (21-11). A deep team, the Monarchs' bench outscored a Cougars' reserves by a 44-15 margin.

Juwan Maxey (Detroit, Mich./Renaissance) led another balanced effort with 13 points and Tymias Williams (Macomb, Mich./Dakota) followed closely with 12 points and seven rebounds. Tate MacKenzie (Ypsilanti, Mich./Ypsilanti) won Saturday's battle down low with an 11-point, 12-rebound double-double, while Josh Hines (Macomb, Mich./Dakota/U-Indy) and Marlon Williams (Benton Harbor, Mich./Benton Harbor) followed with 10 points each.

Nate Brown (Flint, Mich./Davison) and Jotham Nweke (Oak Park, Mich./Loyola) checked in with nine points each to round out Saturday's top scorers.

UP NEXT
The Monarchs begin MCCAA Eastern Conference play on the road on Saturday (Jan. 13) at Schoolcraft. Tip-off for the league opener is scheduled for 3 p.m. in Livonia.