STERLING, CO – The Laramie County Community College men's basketball team rallied back from a double digit first half deficit on Saturday night to close out the Region IX Crossover games at Northeastern Junior College, taking down the host Plainsmen 75-67 for their ninth win of the season.
"NJC does a great job of putting this on," Head Coach DeWayne Saulsberry said of the weekend which saw LCCC take down Otero as well on Friday afternoon. "When you talk about two south teams, Otero who's physically imposing and NJC who's the most physically imposing team that we've played all year, including SLCC, for us to get in there and just fight, that's what we did, we just fought."
The opening salvos had the two-team locked in a defensive battle midway through, but a 20-7 run by NJC gave the Plainsmen the big lead at 31-18. LCCC did whittle into the lead with a 7-3 run to close the first 20 minutes thanks to five points from Brandon Tchouya on a pair of fastbreak lay-ins which included an and-one.
Rebounding was strong in the first half, but early offensive rebounds for NJC helped the Plainsmen keep hold of an eight-point 44-36 lead despite the Golden Eagles aggression inside which earned them multiple trips to the free throw line.
That also meant LCCC was in the bonus early at the free throw line and Pedro Ellery got the Golden Eagles one-and-one free throws with 11:33 still left in the game.
Even with foul trouble, NJC was still able to keep the lead at above a three-possession game as the clock ticked under nine minutes to play on an and-one of their own to make the lead an even ten with 8:32 to go.
Back-to-back-to-back threes from Jordan Reed, Ellery, and Davion Butler cut the lead to just one going into the final media timeout and it was anyone's game going into the final 6:28 on the clock.
The rally back would be complete with another three from Ellery that evened the two sides at 67 with 2:21 to go. The next possession put LCCC in front when the fourth steal of the game from Ejay Scroggins put the Golden Eagles in front for the first time since there were eleven minutes remaining in the first half.
This all was part of a 22-6 run that set LCCC up with a 73-67 lead in the final minute and an offensive rebound along with a turnover by NJC helped the Golden Eagles to ice the game away with their second straight win as LCCC made their free throws to complete a 50-point quarter and take the win 75-67.
"In the first half we shot 29 percent, and you are going to be behind when you shoot 29 percent," Saulsbery said. "We did a great job in the second half of moving the ball and taking shots that we are supposed to take and that was the difference."
Five Golden Eagles finished in double digits for the game, led by Reed with 18. Tchouya added 13 and Ellery, Butler, and Kamrohn Roundtree all finished with ten.
"It's nice when you don't have to depend on one or two guys," Saulsberry said. "If there is a word for what we did well tonight, we walked them down. NJC did a great job in the first half, and in the second half we just kept coming.
The rebounding battle went in favor of Northeastern 41-31, but LCCC was plus-nine in the turnover battle including four steals from Scroggins and as a team they finished 14-18 from the free throw line in the second half.
"You make free throws, you win basketball games," Saulsberry summarized.
LCCC will have the week to prepare for their final home game of the season when they host Otero College at Storey Gym on Saturday afternoon at 3:00 pm. The game will be Luau Day, and all fans who wear a Hawaiian shirt will get free admission. It will be preceded by the LCCC women's game against the College of Southern Idaho at 1:00 pm.
More information on this game and others can be found at www.golccc.com.