CHEYENNE – Landon Taliaferro (Boulder, Colorado) and Da'Zhon Wyche (Anchorage, Alaska) finished with a game-high 26 points and Zaire Mateen (Queens, New York) came off the bench and added 19 as the Laramie County Community College Golden Eagles got a 102-89 victory over Northwest Kansas Technical College in non-region play Wednesday night.
The Golden Eagles improve to 10-9 overall, while the Mavericks are now 11-7 on the year.
Elijah Oliver (Cheyenne, Wyoming) added 13 points for the Golden Eagles, who hit 59.3 percent from the floor in the second half. Chan Hargraves (Melbourne, Australia) also came off the bench and chipped in with 10 points and five rebounds. Stephane Manzi (Nyamirambo, Rwanda) pulled down seven rebounds. Wyche had a team-high eight assists and Mateen dished out six assists.
Kahleel Ellis-Garcia had 22 points to lead four Northwest Kansas Tech players in double figures, with Shazier Lawson adding 20, Miles Gibson had 14 and Bentiu Panoam finishing with 11.
The Golden Eagles struggled from the 3-point line in the first half only shooting 27.8 percent. Things were back and forth early on between the two teams before the Golden Eagles hit back-to-back 3-pointers to take a five point lead. The Mavericks would trim that lead right before the half as LCCC led 45-41 at the break.
The Mavericks scored the first basket of the second half to cut the lead down to two, but the Golden Eagles rallied over the next four minutes to pull ahead by 12 at 57-45. Laramie County would lead the remainder of the half leading by as many as 21 at one point.
LCCC buried 11 three-pointers in the second half and shot 68.8 percent from behind the arch in the half. As a team the Golden Eagles shot 51.6 percent from the field, 47.1 percent from the 3-point line and 76.9 percent from the foul line.
Laramie County travels to Trinidad State Junior College on Saturday for its next game in a 4 p.m. matchup.
For the latest on LCCC Men's Basketball, stay tuned to golccc.com and follow the team on Twitter @lcccsports and @lcccbasketball.
