SCOTTSBLUFF, NE – The Laramie County Community College men's basketball team saw their season come to a close on Thursday afternoon in the Region IX Tournament quarterfinals, falling to eventual champion Trinidad State 93-79 after a valiant effort against the two-time defending champions.

"I thought we played hard," Head Coach DeWayne Saulsberry said. "We played smart and we played together but I think at the end of the day we just ran out of bodies."

The game opened with the Golden Eagles giving up a surge to the Trojans, finding themselves trailing 14-8 with just over 10 minutes left in the opening half of a defensive battle, but the tide would turn over the next four minutes.

LCCC rallied to go on a 19-8 run, claiming a 27-22 lead that grew to as much as nine when they pushed ahead 33-24. Phoenix Bullock was the leader of the charge initially but received help from sophomores Jordan Reed and Abdullah Mahamed on the way.

"We were driving to the hole and going hard, finishing through contact, all of the good stuff that we work on," Saulsberry said of the effort.

The Golden Eagles surrendered a late charge to the Trojans in the final two minutes that closed the gap to just two points but retained a 38-36 advantage going into halftime.

In the second, Trinidad State found their groove early and pushed ahead in the opening ten minutes with a steady climb to a 13-point lead, led mostly by a herculean effort from Lateef Patrick, who would finish the game with 32 points, 24 of which came in the second half.

LCCC dug in and by the 7:20 mark in the game had trimmed the gap back to just six points on a Mahamed dunk and were seemingly back into the game down 68-62 with momentum on their side, but the Trojans used the media timeout to regain their composure.

"I talked to the team about understanding what had gotten us the lead and getting them to understand that in a playoff game, you think that every play is life or death but it really wasn't and they just kind of settled back in," Saulsberry said. "You have to hand it to Trinidad, they made some big shots."

Foul trouble also began to mount for the Golden Eagles in the final five minutes, and the shortened bench helped Trinidad State to push the lead back to double digits.

LCCC saw Bullock foul out of the game, along with Pedro Ellery and Ejay Scroggins and with three key contributors on the bench, the Trojans iced the game away at the line and capped the win off with a Patrick three from well beyond the three-point line to claim the 93-79 win and end the Golden Eagles season.

Reed and Mahamed led the LCCC offensive effort in the game with 19 points each, with Mahamed dominating the boards inside while on the court, claiming eight rebounds, including seven offensive boards.

Bullock finished with 13 points and Scroggins overcame a slow first half to finish with eleven. Reed also added four assists and was tied for the team lead with Justin Daniels, and the Golden Eagles as a team finished with 17 assists.

Rebounding was where the game was won though, and Trinidad State used 24 offensive rebounds pull ahead, with most of their points coming inside, only shooting 2 of 15 from deep.

The Trojans also were clean from the free throw line where they were 25-32 in the game.

LCCC struggled in their shooting game as well, only going 4 of 22 from beyond the arc and finishing the game shooting under 40 percent from the field. They did have one of their better games from the foul line though, finishing 15-19 from the charity stripe.

LCCC finishes the season 17-15 and this ends a run of two straight trips to the Region IX Semifinals for the Golden Eagles. It is also the third straight season for Saulsberry finishing with 17 wins on the year.

"Hopefully what we learned from this is to keep fighting," Saulsberry said with a look to next season. "This team went through a lot and they never gave up. Hopefully we can take that into the rest of the spring and into the summer to get better."

The team is expecting to return a strong core for next season, with Scroggins, Bullock, and Daniels being joined by Davion Butler and Michael Amako as key members of the rotation. Jonathan Strong and Carter David will also have the chance to return after walking on to the team this season.

For more information, you can visit www.golccc.com.