COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – The Laramie County Community College women's basketball team bookended a 80-58 win over Air Force Prep on Wednesday night with big runs in the first and fourth quarters to put away the Huskies and move back above .500 on the year.
Air Force Prep opened the game with a small burst in the opening 90 seconds to go up 5-0, but LCCC responded back with a vengeance, rolling off 11 straight points paced by seven from Blanche Toualeu to take the lead for the first time and they wouldn't look back.
"I knew coming out that this team was well coached and they do have a couple players that will be moving up to the academy and those kids came out firing on all cylinders but at the end of the day, I was please with the responce by our team," Head Coach Ayana McWilliams said.
Toualeu finished with nine of the teams 20 first quarter points with LCCC up 20-13 and would trade rolls with Lylah Spring in the second quarter when the Golden Eagles rolled up another 20 points thanks to a 13-point quarter from Spring, who would finish the game with 30 points for second all time in school history for a single game.
With a halftime lead of 40-28, LCCC tried to run away in the second half, but the Huskies began to knock down threes in the third quarter to pull back the Golden Eagles when they started to pull away.
The offense added another weapon to it's display with Mattie Jones and Tyra Lovelock adding to the attack on the paint with drives to the hoop to combine for 20 points in the game, all from inside the three-point line.
"That helps heaps," Spring said of the aggression the guards played with attacking the hoop. "Most of the time the posts are collapsing on us so they aren't expecting the drive from the guards with opens it up for them because the defense is so attached to us. I'm really proud of our guards tonight and really happy for them that they really got inside and aggressive."
Despite that, LCCC still only led 67-58 with six minutes remaining, but closed the fourth quarter on a 13-0 run that ended the game with an exclamation point and gave LCCC a modest two game winning streak.
"We wanted to keep it an uptempo game and you saw it at the start and at the finish so I was glad we were able to finish it at the pace that we wanted to be at," McWilliams said.
Spring was the dominant force in the game, finishing with 30 points, 20 rebounds, seven blocks, three assists, and two steals. Her 20 rebounds is tied for the most in a single game in school history with Haylie Anderson who accomplished the feat in 2018 and she sets herself along in single game numbers, breaking her own mark of six and breaking a tie with Abby Garreaud who set the original mark in 2020.
"I'm just being aggressive," Spring said. "I don't care who's in front of me anymore and if you are in front of me, I'm going to go through you," Spring said.
Springs 13 made field goals and 30 points puts her in second in single game marks along with Michala Bork, who set both marks last season.
Along with the record night for Spring, the Golden Eagles had great contributions up and down the roster.
Toualeu finished with 18 points and seven rebounds, and eight total LCCC players finished in the scoring.
The matchup with Air Force Prep was the only game of the week for the Golden Eagles who now set their sights on #24 Northeastern Junior College who will be in Cheyenne on Tuesday, December 12th.
"I think this is a really good way for us to build. We know what we have to work on over the next few days going into NJC on Tuesday, but it's definitely a momentum builder going into next week," Spring said.
Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 pm and information on that game and more can be found at www.golccc.com.