CHEYENNE, WY – The Laramie County Community College men's basketball team rallied from down at the half to topple Northeastern Junior College 89-80 in the final game of the Thanksgiving Classic presented by Little America on Friday night at the Blue FCU RAC.
The game was controlled early on by the Golden Eagles thanks to an 11-2 run spurred by a pair of Davion Butler threes that gave LCCC a 12-5 advantage. The Plainsmen, who had been in a back-and-forth game with Gillette College the night before, rallied to close the gap to 12-11 going into the first media timeout.
The story repeated itself over the next seven minutes as LCCC once more built the lead to 20-13 just to see NJC chop away at it and eventually take the lead at 23-22 and 25-24. They went on a 6-0 run to push their lead to seven at 31-24 and essentially traded scores the rest of the first half to a 38-33 Plainsmen lead going into the locker rooms.
LCCC had struggled in the first half on the boards and NJC's 22-9 advantage on the glass was a big part in the Golden Eagles finding themselves trailing at the break.
That changed in the second half and LCCC broke the game open with an early 14-2 run that gave them momentum back and tied their largest lead of the game at seven. TJ Coulter, who was oh-for in the first half from three found his range and was a catalyst in the run.
NJC leveled out and was able to bring it back to a five-point game at 56-51 but another pair of threes, this time from Coulter and Phoenix Bullock, pushed the lead to a new game high of eleven and set the tone for what the rest of the half would be.
The Plainsmen continued to draw as close as two possessions, and even put three Golden Eagles into foul trouble, but timely threes, including a pair from Nikko Von Stralendorff with both Coulter and Bullock on the bench consistently thwarted their chances at rallying back.
Strong inside play from both Kevin Sylla and Brevin Phillips also helped with the pair combining for 13 rebounds, 24 points, and five assists in the game to shut down the Northeastern inside presence and force them into looks from beyond the arc.
By the game's end, the seesaw second half had LCCC finishing off with their fourth consecutive win taking the game 89-80 to close out their holiday weekend.
Six LCCC players finished in double figures in the game, led by Butler who cashed in for 20 points on 6-9 shooting, including 4-6 from deep. Bullock added 15, Coulter and Phillips had 14, Von Stralendorff had a season high 11 and Sylla closed the group with ten.
LCCC really controlled the ball well, only turning it over nine times in the game and forcing 13. They did lose the rebounding battle 39-25 but flipped it around with 16 assists in the game and shot 50 percent from three in the game, going 15-30 from beyond the arc.
The win improves the Golden Eagles to 5-4 on the season and gives them a winning record going into Monday's home game against #9 Salt Lake Community College. LCCC faced off against SLCC in Salt Lake City, Utah on the 19th, falling 98-80 and will look to split the season series with the Bruins with tip off set for 7:00 pm from the Blue FCU RAC.
More information on this game and the full schedule for the Golden Eagles can be found at www.golccc.com.