CHEYENNE, WY – The Laramie County Community College women's basketball team ended a short two game losing streak with a convincing 76-49 win over Eastern Wyoming at Storey Gym on Saturday afternoon.
"It feels great to be on the winning side of this one," Head Coach Ayana McWilliams said. "It's been a long time since we've been able to put a complete 40 minutes (of defense) together and I thought we did a really good job on the defensive side of the ball today."
The defense set the tone early and often, including over eight minutes of holding the Lancers scoreless in the first quarter while the Golden Eagles built up a 9-0 lead.
"I think we had really good communication, especially in the first few minutes," freshman guard Michala Bork said about the opening run. "We played a lot of zone and bumped around and had a lot of energy."
EWC did rally and closed the gap to 9-7 with a late flurry going the the second, but it would last long as the LCCC offense woke up and exploded for 26 points to close out the half while holding Eastern to just eight in the second quarter.
The second half was more of the same for Laramie County, putting up 22 points in the third quarter and 19 points in the fourth. Eastern Wyoming would respond late with a 22 point final frame but it was much to little too late and LCCC moved back to 2-2 in conference play with the 27 point win.
Bork led the way for Laramie County with 19 points, nine rebounds, six steals, and five assists. She wasn't the only one who loaded up the stat sheet. Monique Marcetic-Voatangi picked up another double-double on the season with 13 points and ten rebounds. Lylah Spring added 14 points and had nine boards and Nikola Kuzmanovic finished with 12 points and seven rebounds.
"We were missing two key players so we just had to figure out a way to create offense," said McWilliams. "And like I said, the kids bought in to the defensive side and held their own."
The Golden Eagles outrebounded the Lancers 52-38 through the game and had more steals, assists, and blocks and had less turnovers in a game which they won every statistical category.
"Everybody understood that if we were going to sit in that zone that we needed to be able to rebound the basketball and that rebounding the ball was going to lead us into transition."
The win also was their 16th of the year which leaves them three wins shy of tying the school record for wins in a season at 19, set in the 2018-19 season.
They won't have long to wait before they return to the court when they face Western Nebraska Community College on Monday night at 5:30 pm at Storey Gym.
"It's a team everyone has talked up all season so I'm just excited to see and test them out on my own," Bork said.
This is a rescheduled contest from December and is the final non-conference game of the season.