CHEYENNE, WY - The Laramie County Community College Golden Eagles (1-0) opened up the season with an 83-74 win over No. 24 Northeastern Junior College (0-1) on Monday night.

Xavier McCord (Cheyenne, Wyo.) led the way for the Golden Eagles, scoring 17 points and grabbing eight rebounds, and scored four of the Golden Eagles' first nine points as they jumped out to a 9-0 lead over the Plainsmen.

Northeastern was able to cut the Golden Eagles' advantage to 9-4 before Nolan Causwell (Duluth, Ga.) stepped into a three-pointer, hitting his first of two three-pointers for the game to push the lead to eight at 12-4. Causwell finished the game with 10 points and grabbed five rebounds. Ghared Boyce (Brockton, Mass.) then pushed the lead to 11, hitting a three-pointer to give the Golden Eagles a 17-6 lead. Boyce ended the night with nine points and three steals. 

The Plainsmen took their only lead of ht game late in the first half grabbing a 29-27 lead before the Golden Eagles ended the half on a 15-5 run, going into the locker room with a 42-34 lead.

Jaedon Bradley (Aurora, Colo.) gave the Golden Eagles a 13-point lead with a dunk to put LCCC up 53-40 early in the second half. Bradley finished the game with nine points and five rebounds. 

After Northeastern was able to trim the Golden Eagles' lead to seven, Max Reyes (Bronx, N.Y.) hit a long three in front of the Golden Eagles' bench to put LCCC up 10 at 60-50. Reyes finished as the team's second-leading scorer, scoring 14 points and tying for the team lead in assists with four. 

Derrick Hardin (Rex, Ga.) came up with a putback basket to once again push the Golden Eagles' lead back out to 11 at 71-60 with just a little over seven minutes to play. Hardin ended the game with 10 points and seven rebounds in his Golden Eagles' debut. 

Northeastern pulled to within five at 76-71 with 2:19 to play before the Golden Eagles ended the game on a 7-3 run to beat Northeastern 83-74. Arion Lewis (Philadelphia, Pa.) scored 11 points in the win while Jayden McCray (Fort Worth, Texas) scored three points and had a steal in his debut. As a team, the Golden Eagles shot 38% from the floor and had 14 assists in the win. 

LCCC hits the road on Friday, November, 5, heading to North Platte to take on the Knights at 6:00 pm MDT. The Golden Eagles split a pair of games with North Platte last season, winning the first meeting at home 116-93 before losing the return matchup in Nebraska, 108-100.