POWELL, WY – A career night from Ejay Scroggins paced the Laramie County Community College men's basketball team to their first conference win of the season, as they rallied from down double digits in the first half against Northwest College to win 92-75 on Saturday evening.
"It feels good to get that monkey off your back and do it in a way that shows some toughness," Head Coach DeWayne Saulsberry said. "Even in losses we had been playing hard, we just had not been playing very intelligent, and tonight, especially in the second half, we did both and held those guys to 33 points and I was extremely proud of them."
The Golden Eagles opened with a burst of energy from Scroggins who scored the first five points for LCCC on the way to a 5-2 lead, but the Trappers defense clamped down and they scored 11 of the next 14 points going into the first media timeout for a five-point lead with 13:58 to go in the first half.
The lead would grow to as much as nine at 22-13 before the Golden Eagles were able to trim it back to four, but that was short lived as the Trappers went on a small run to push the lead back to 30-22 into the second media timeout.
The two sides settled into a back and forth for the rest of the half and LCCC was able to maintain the deficit where it was at eight and entered the final 20 minutes down 42-34.
The gap was closed to just five with 16 minutes to go when LCCC made a three from Phoenix Bullock to close within 49-44 and that sparked a surge that saw the Golden Eagles eventually tie the game at 51 all.
A minute later, after the Trappers had reclaimed the lead, a Davion Butler three gave the lead back to LCCC for the first time since they had the advantage at 8-6 in the opening half.
While it was a three that gave the Golden Eagles the lead, it was a steady diet of inside drives that really gave them the momentum and helped close the gap.
"What I told the guys is simple," Saulsberry said. "If you can get downhill and can get some stuff in the paint, the threes that you really want to shoot will be open. Since Christmas, we've tried to do it the other way."
The defense held the Trappers scoreless for the next three minutes allowing the Golden Eagles to build the lead to 63-53 and that ten-point edge would be hit again at 71-61 as both offenses settled into trading baskets.
The Golden Eagles defense appeared again after the second media timeout and forced two near shot clock violations on the Northwest offense while Scroggins continued his assault on the hoop which pushed LCCC up 79-69 with just 3:43 to play in the game.
"In the first half we didn't realize what they were doing to us (on offense) and we were reacting. In the second half I thought we did a better job of making them do something they didn't want to do by taking the first option away and make them do something else," Saulsberry said.
A Pedro Ellery three pushed the lead to the biggest of the game on the next possession at 82-69 and the Golden Eagles began to take more time off the clock from there to put the game on ice, wrapping it up with a 92-75 win for their first conference win of the season.
LCCC was paced by a career high from Scroggins who finished with 31 points to go with nine rebounds, seven steals and five assists.
"You don't really know what's going to gel, what's not going to gel, and then with Jordan being a little banged up tonight, we decided to give him some rest and Ejay stood up," Saulsberry said.
Bullock also had a career high with 19 points. Ellery added 13 and Davion Butler overcame a slow start to finish with 10 points and had six assists to lead the team there.
The Golden Eagles continue their road trip through Region IX North play when they head to Casper on Wednesday night for their first of two against the Thunderbirds. Opening tip of the game is scheduled for 7:30 pm and more information on the game can be found at www.golccc.com.