ROCK SPRINGS, WY - The Laramie County Community College women's basketball team rebounded from their loss on Thursday night to Casper College with a strong defensive effort and a determined performance from their inside scoring to defeat Western Wyoming Community College 64-49 on Saturday afternoon to move to 3-3 in conference play on the season and 10-12 on the year.
"I think we came in with a mentality that we wanted our defense to shine tonight," Head Coach Ayana McWilliams said. "That when people looked at the game they saw the defense was doing it's job and I think we did a really good job of keeping them away from their strengths and we defended like crazy. This was probably one of the best defensive efforts I've seen from this group."
The Golden Eagles looked inside early and often in the opening quarter and after seeing Western Wyoming push to a 6-5 lead, LCCC pushed back with a 10-0 run that would give them the lead for the rest of the game on the way to a 23-15 advantage after the opening quarter.
Lylah Spring was a major part of the effort, scoring 10 of her 22 points on the night in the opening frame, but was helped along by another seven points from Marcela Pinedo-Saavedra. The two also combined to go 8-8 from the free throw line in first quarter leading to early foul trouble for the Mustangs, and the inside scoring also allowed Kelly Megown to go 3-4 from three point range.
"Early on Lylah was able to get rolling on the interior, we got some early foul calls and different things like that so we were just able to live in the moment," McWilliams said.
The two teams traded baskets to open the second quarter and then it was the LCCC defense that took over. WWCC didn't find the scoreboard again until five minutes left in the first half and by then the Golden Eagles had pushed their lead to 16, nearly doubling up the home team 33-17. A small push back at the end of the quarter by Western Wyoming did trim the gap to 15 but the Golden Eagles still held solid control with a 38-23 advantage.
LCCC pulled back their pace in the second half, looking to take the air out of the ball and slow the pace of play down and rely on their defense to keep the Mustangs offense at bay, and that plan worked to a charm. The Western Wyoming offense only managed to score 13 points in the quarter and wore away to increase the lead to a game high 17 points with a 4-0 burst to close the frame and take a 53-36 lead into the fourth.
"We didn't want to be back on our heels and play timid, but we wanted to play at our own pace and at our own will," McWilliams explained. "When we had numbers we tried to run, when we didn't have numbers we didn't have to be in a rush."
It was more of the same in the fourth, although Western Wyoming did keep LCCC to just one field goal in the first six minutes of the quarter. That was only matched by seven points of their own though, as the Mustangs could never quite solve the riddle of the inside defense from LCCC.
The LCCC offense made their free throws to close out the game and Megown closed it with a key three at the end, giving LCCC the 64-49 victory.
Spring was the top scorer for the Golden Eagles, adding another double double to her season tally with 22 points and 13 rebounds. Megown finished with 18 points and Pinedo-Saavedra had 11 to go with six rebounds.
Blanche Toualeu was again flirting with a triple double, closing the game with eight points, 13 rebounds, and seven assists.
LCCC wraps up what was a five game road trip and will return home for the first time since Janaury 16th when they play Northwest College on Friday, February 9th at Storey Gym. Opening tip for the game is scheduled for 5:30 pm and more information as well as tickets for the game can be purchased at www.golccc.com.