POWELL, WY – A rally after trailing by as many as 18 points fell just short on Saturday afternoon as the Laramie County Community College men's basketball team dropped a conference game 85-77 to the Northwest College Trappers, falling to 3-5 in conference play and 10-16 overall.

The Trappers broke the game open early after a 12-0 run led to a 17-3 lead after five and a half minutes and forced Head Coach DeWayne Saulsberry into a timeout to help stop the bleeding and rally his team.

Saulsberry said the team was expecting it to be a little bit of a battle early as he was trying to save their energy after a week of three road games.

"I had told the guys they were probably going to have to dig themselves out of a little bit of a hole because we were really trying to save legs. TJ and Phoenix had logged a lot of minutes, so we went into a zone to try and save some legs and ended up in a bigger hole than I wanted."

LCCC responded by cutting the gap down to eight, going into the under-twelve media timeout down 23-15.

Northwest changed their approach over the next eight minutes and began to attack the hoop, earning free throws and slowly rebuilding the lead up to as much as 42-24 after a pair of free throws with just over two minutes remaining in the quarter.

Sophomore Phoenix Bullock took the reins from there and led the team on a 13-4 run, including scoring tens straight points for LCCC as they brought momentum back on their side and closed to within single digits after an old fashioned three-point play from TJ Coulter ended the half with the score at 46-37.

"It probably saved the game," Saulsberry said of the run. "Going into the half with the mindset that we were only down nine, not double figures. You can have the mindset of now we just need a couple of stops and we can get it done."

The duo of Coulter and Bullock continued to press in the opening ten minutes of the second half and Northwest couldn't find a consistent answer. An 18-7 run was the result as the Golden Eagles took their first lead of the game with 12:30 to go a 55-53.

A scare for LCCC happened with just over ten minutes remaining with Bullock landing on an opposing player's foot after a layup causing him to have to leave the court for several minutes, but the team rallied together as they played heads up with the Trappers.

For the next eight minutes, the two teams would see six ties and six lead changes until the teams went to the final media timeout with 2:33 left and Northwest just ahead 71-70.

The Trappers were the first to gain some separation, going on a 6-0 run out of the break to reestablish control of the game and all the Golden Eagles could do was send Northwest to the foul line, where they closed the game by going 12-12 from the foul line, on a night they went 25-25, to ice the game.

"This is the best game we've had since DB's departure," Saulberry said. "This is the first time I looked and could say the turnovers were down. We still made some big turnovers late, but it was just a flat-out battle, and our guys have nothing to hold their heads down about."

Coulter finished the game with a team high 33 points followed closely by Bullock with 26. Only four other Golden Eagles would score, with six points from Andre Bennett, five from Xavier January, four from Aeremiah Binford, and three from Nikko Von Stralendorff.

Despite going 18-19 from the foul line and having a 41 percent night from three, LCCC couldn't overcome a perfect night from the free throw line by the Trappers. LCCC also struggled with turnovers, committing thirteen in the game while forcing only nine themselves.

LCCC will have a week to heal up and look forward to the return of sophomore Davion Butler, who has been sidelined the last three games with an injury sustained against Casper College. They will return to the court for a pivotal game against Eastern Wyoming College on Saturday afternoon at 4:00 pm.

Saulsberry said the focus this week is on cleaning up the offense and getting healthy.

"We have to worry about just ourselves. I worry more about ourselves than who the opponent is. If we are playing basketball the way we know how to play basketball, we can beat anybody in our region. So, these teams had better get us now."

The Region IX North men's standings are still tight, with four teams still fighting for the third and fourth spots and home games in the first round of the tournament. Northwest holds the edge with a 3-5 conference record. Western Wyoming Community College is currently in fourth at 3-4 with Central Wyoming and LCCC tied for fifth at 3-5.

"We are still a team that is trying to find ourselves because of some injuries but we have four games to find it," Saulsberry said.

Gillette College and Casper College both top the standings with one loss each while EWC is the odd man out at 1-7 in the final place.  

A win against EWC on Saturday would guarantee a spot in the postseason bracket for the Golden Eagles. Streaming information and more on the LCCC men's schedule can be found at www.golccc.com.