CHEYENNE, WY – A strong start wasn't enough for the Laramie County Community College women's basketball team as they fell 58-52 on Friday night to McCook Community College at the Blue FCU RAC to fall to 6-7 on the season and drop their second game to the Indians on the season.
"We came out swinging at first, but the energy just got the better of us," Head Coach Danielle Rinaldo said. "McCook is a great team, and we match up really well with them. They were hitting their shots, and we weren't hitting shots."
The first quarter LCCC was hitting their shots, particularly Flora Lukow who led the team on a 9-4 run on her own which was enough to help them to a 13-9 lead after the opening quarter.
The offense took a hit for the Golden Eagles when Lukow picked up her second foul and McCook took advantage to take their second lead of the game, and first since 5-4 when they went up 20-18 on a pair of free throws from Madara Liepniece.
Two more ties at 20 and 22 kept LCCC close but McCook closed the first half with the 26-24 lead in a physical first half.
"The fight was there. That's our identity and I think that's one of the things that keeps showing up is that we have the fight, and we aren't going to back down," Rinaldo said.
It took three minutes for the Golden Eagles to score coming out of the locker room, finding themselves on the wrong side of an 8-2 run that put McCook up 34-26 with 5:54 to go in the third quarter. The Golden Eagles hit a pair of threes from Nuria Florensa that brough them within two but they couldn't quite get over the hump going to the final quarter down 40-35.
Defense was the name of the game for both teams to open the fourth. It took two minutes for the two sides to change the score, but the Indians were the first to get some breathing room, going on an 11-6 run to push the lead to double figures at 41-31.
A few steals, and a big three that sparked the 9-2 run that followed the media timeout brought the Golden Eagles back to within one at 53-52, but a clutch three from Liepniece sealed the win for McCook with less than 30 second remaining and McCook escaped with the 58-52 win.
The defense kept LCCC in the game all night, and sparked key runs, and Rinaldo said this is a team that has really embraced that as their identity.
"We like defense. We love playing in our zone. We love playing our man to man, so we have a lot of pride in our defense. We talk about how our defense and steals turns into offense so when we can create that momentum on defense, we usually can create that momentum on offense," Rinaldo said.
LCCC only had a pair reach double-digits on the night. Lukow led the way with 13 points with Marcela Pinedo-Saavedra adding another 12 from inside. Florensa finished with nine points but added five assists and Pinedo-Saavedra picked up another three assists and three blocks.
The real damage for the Golden Eagles was the tough shooting night. As a team they were only able to shoot 33.9 percent from the field and only 22.2 percent from three. They also lost the rebounding battle 32-22, although they handled the pressure better with only 11 turnovers to the 14 from McCook.
"Twenty-two percent from the three-point line isn't going to win you many games especially when you are a three-point shooting team," Rinaldo said. "It is what it is though and that's why we play sports. Sometimes you have a rough game and hopefully we get a bounce back tomorrow."
LCCC is back on the court when they face off with North Platte Community College at 2:00 pm on Saturday afternoon. Streaming information and tickets can be found at www.golccc.com.