CHEYENNE, WY – A physical contest on Friday night saw the Laramie County Community College men's basketball team take down Western Wyoming Community College 80-75 to improve to 3-1 in Region IX North action and pick up their sixth consecutive win over the Mustangs going back to the 2022-23 season.
In typical fashion, the game was tight throughout the first half with six ties and eight lead changes, four of which happened in the opening five minutes with the two sides finding themselves tied at 11 a few minutes after the opening media timeout.
"It's kind of one of those boxing matches where you spar with the guy for years and you know each other so well," Head Coach DeWayne Saulsberry said.
Western Wyoming went on a 5-0 run to gain some separation with 11:51 to go, but LCCC rallied and a Nikko Von Stralendorff three was the catalyst of a run from the Golden Eagles that gave them the lead for most of the final 10 minutes of the first half.
The Mustangs were able to rally back late though and finished the first half on a 6-2 run over the final 90 seconds that gave them a 40-37 lead at the break.
The second half opened in a less than favorable way for the Golden Eagles. Saulsberry was forced into an early timeout as Western Wyoming built the first double digit lead of the game with a 13-6 run that gave them a 53-43 lead with just under 15 minutes to go.
"For five minutes we didn't play hard. For five minutes we were looking around at each other saying 'whose time is it to step up'. I called a timeout and said if we don't play, this game is going to get away from you," Saulsberry said.
LCCC was able to right the ship and responded from deep with back-to-back threes from TJ Coulter and inside effort from Brevin Phillips sparking a 12-2 run of their own to even the game at 55 all.
"That run came from getting stops, getting rebounds, running our offense and getting good shots," Butler said.
"Brevin was big for us. We've been asking him all year to show what he is made of. He's an unbelievable human being, but sometimes you don't need to be nice on the basketball court. Sometimes you have to have a little dog in you," Saulsberry added.
More lead changes ensued but the momentum shifted for good on a Phoenix Bullock three that game the Golden Eagles the lead for good at 61-59. A 13-6 run of their own followed, capped off by Davion Butler and Andre Bennett nailing a pair of threes with four minutes to go that gave the Golden Eagles a game high lead of 74-65.
From there, LCCC took the air out of the ball, slowing the pace down and working the clock, and also capitalizing on free throws, going 12-14 from the line in the second half and closing out the 80-75 win to pick up their 10th victory of the season and keeping pace just a game and a half back of Casper College for the top spot in the Region IX North standings.
Coulter led the scoring effort for LCCC, finishing with 23 points and ten rebounds for his first collegiate double double. The 20-point game was his 12th of the season, and he finished all five games in January with more than 20 points.
"I have been trying to focus on defense in particular because that is the part of my game I need to work on most so I try to focus on that when my shot isn't falling at least," Coulter said.
Both Butler and Phillips both finished with 13 points each and Butler added five assists and five rebounds. Bullock capped off the Golden Eagles in double figures.
As a team, LCCC shot 40 percent from the field for the game as was efficient from three with 36 percent of their shots from deep falling. They also were effective in controlling the ball with only seven turnovers in the game.
Defensively, despite being out rebounded in the game, they limited the Mustangs to nine less shots in the contest and forced 15 turnovers while picking up 10 steals, led by Butler and Aeremiah Binford who finished with three each.
"All week in practice coach has been telling us they were going to try and be aggressive and outwork us in the paint and that's kind of been our Achilles heel this year, teams attempt to bury us and take advantage of us in the paint and tonight we held our own and came out with the win," Butler said.
It's a quick turnaround for the Golden Eagles, with the top team in the conference standings coming to the Blue FCU RAC on Saturday afternoon at 4:00 pm when the Casper College Thunderbirds (18-4, 5-0) make their way to Cheyenne.
More information on this game and the full LCCC men's basketball schedule can be found at www.golccc.com.