TORRINGTON, WY – The Laramie County Community College men's basketball team was in it to the end against the Eastern Wyoming College Lancers but fell short on their final attempts of the game in a thrilling 88-86 Region IX North contest on Friday night.
The game started out with the Golden Eagles surging in front on to a 13-7 lead in the first eight minutes of the opening half. EWC picked up a pair of threes to even the game on their next two possessions but couldn't take the lead thanks to strong inside defense from LCCC.
LCCC pushed the lead back to six with five minutes to go in the game, much in part thanks to a first half double-double from Abdullah Mahamed who closed the frame with ten tallies in both points and rebounds going to the locker room.
As for the team, a late surge by the Lancers trimmed what was a 32-26 advantage to a 39-38 lead going into the locker rooms with LCCC still in front by a single point.
The close game didn't change in the second half either. Lead changes and ties were the story of the first 10 minutes until an 8-0 EWC run gave them a 66-59 lead for the largest of the game by either team.
There were several pushes by the Golden Eagles to cut it to single possession games, but the strong shooting of Micah Glover, who finished with 25 points, paired with offensive rebounding inside from the Lancer bigs kept the LCCC men from every getting back in front.
Down 84-78 with just a minute to go, Jordan Reed hit a his first three of the game to close the gap to 84-81 and made the final 60 seconds of the game interesting for LCCC.
A few second later, Justin Daniels added to the intrigue with a 25 foot jumper to close the gap to 86-84. Two free throws from Khayree Rashed put EWC backup 88-84 until a five second run up the court from Jordan Reed answered to make it 88-86 with a dunk with only 18 seconds left.
LCCC would foul and the Lancers missed the front end of the next trip to the line only to see the Golden Eagles turn the ball over on their next possession with just over 10 seconds left. Another quick foul sent Glover to the line but he also missed his free throw giving one more look to LCCC.
Reed took the rebound the length of the court but as he attempted his shot it was blocked inside by Mikiah Tarver and the Lancers survived to pull off the upset and drop the Golden Eagle men to 0-2 in Region IX North action.
Five Golden Eagles finished in double digits out of the seven to score in the game, with none adding more than Ejay Scroggins who finished with a career high 22 points. Reed finished with 18 points, Mahamed 14, Daniels 12, and Pedro Ellery closed out the top scorers with 11.
LCCC is back on the road on Friday, January 26th when they travel to Riverton, Wyoming to face Central Wyoming College in the second of five straight on the road for LCCC as they look for their first conference win of the year. More information on that game can be found at www.golccc.com.