CHEYENNE, WY – An explosive beginning to both the first and second halves on Saturday afternoon powered the Laramie County Community College men's basketball team to a dominant 101-81 victory over Otero College and a 10-5 start to the first half of the season as they capped off their December schedule at Storey Gym.
The LCCC men broke open the game in the opening five minutes with a 13-0 run that broke a 6-6 tie, and never looked back from there in the opening half.
It was a balanced offense that led the way for LCCC in this one, with nine players scoring and a steady diet of free throws, where LCCC started the game 8-8 from the line. The lead would hit a high of 32 points before the Rattlers closed the half on a 7-2 run to trip in back to 56-33 going into the halftime locker rooms.
A 20-0 run opened the second half for LCCC, and the Golden Eagles were off and running, pushing the lead to 76-33 as the defense had clamped down on Otero, holding them scoreless for the first three and a half minutes of the second.
The Rattlers responded with a 15-2 run of their own, keyed by four threes by Ty Burbank to close the gap to 78-51 with 10:43 remaining in the game. The run wouldn't last and wouldn't come close enough to make the Golden Eagles sweat too much, and LCCC's defense clamped down to staunch the flow of points quickly after a timeout.
The rest of the game was just window dressing, as the bench players for LCCC picked up plenty of minutes, guiding the team to a 101-81 win to cap of the first half of their schedule before conference play begins in January.
For the number of points scored, it was an extremely balanced attack for the men, led by Jordan Reed's 22-point outburst, with 16 coming in the first half and five threes' leading his night. Pedro Ellery added another five threes, going 5-6 from deep in the game.
Brandon Tchouya added 16 more and pitched in with a season high seven assists and eight rebounds. Other Golden Eagles in double digits included Kamrohn Roundtree with eleven and Ejay Scroggins picking up ten.
The Golden Eagles had an impressive night on the rebounding side from Abdullah Mahamed who clamped down on a season high eleven to go with six points.
LCCC's shooting was the key to the big win, going a blistering 15-26 from deep for a 57.7 percent clip while shooting 51.5 percent from the field.
The Golden Eagles will have the break to rest up before they return to action on January 9th when they host Air Force Prep at 7:00 pm at Storey Gym. It will be Military Appreciation Night and more information as well as tickets can be found at www.golccc.com.