POWELL, WY – After a defensive struggle in the first half the Laramie County Community College women's basketball team fell off of the pace in the fourth quarter on the way to a 61-46 loss on Saturday afternoon, falling back to 12-12 overall and 3-5 in conference play.

"It was streaky," Head Coach Danielle Rinaldo said. "We kind of lost that confidence to adapt to whatever was thrown at us defensively. We knew they were going to throw us different defenses and one of our main goals was to adapt and that's just something we fell short of tonight."

The opening half was 20 minutes of defensive highlights between the two sides.

The two sides combined for seven lead changes and three ties in the first quarter with neither getting a bigger edge than two points until the first came to a close with the host Trappers in front 15-13. The Golden Eagles were moving the ball well though and had gone 3-9 from deep to stay close.

The team became three dominant in the second quarter but couldn't find the bottom of the net for the first six and a half minutes on the way to a 1-9 performance from deep. The team did play strong on the defensive side to make up for the lack of scoring with the Trappers only getting eight points in the quarter to lead 23-15 with 60 seconds to go.

Over the final minute, a five-point surge closed the gap back to 23-20 as both teams went to the locker rooms looking to turn around the slow starts. For the Golden Eagles, the big factor to fix was turnovers, with 19 of them hindering their opportunities in the first half.

"Our choices with the ball, seeing each other, being strong with the ball, we knew they were going to be very physical and in our face and we just didn't handle the pressure very well and it led to turnovers," Rinaldo said.

LCCC came out and matched shot for shot with Northwest in the third quarter as both offenses found more success and had trimmed the gap to just two approaching the media timeout.

Northwest rallied for a 7-0 run to begin to pull away up 40-31, but freshman Nuria Florensa and Sabela Carro led a charge for LCCC as a 7-0 run of their own kept the game tight. The teams combined for 41 points in the quarter, but the Golden Eagles were still just back of the Trappers, down 44-40 going to the fourth.

"(Nuria) definitely stepped up," Rinaldo said after the freshman scored or assisted on 11 of the teams points in the quarter. "She was doing a great job on defense as well and for someone to step up on offense was really good."

Misfortune struck the LCCC offense again in the fourth quarter. For the second time in the game the Golden Eagles saw a lid put on the basket and a scoring drought that lasted nearly eight minutes led to a 13-0 run from Northwest before a Florensa three put LCCC on the board with 2:25 remaining.

The damage had already been done though, and the Trappers had established a 57-43 lead going into the final minutes of the game. One more three from Flora Lukow closed the scoring for LCCC as they had one of the toughest offensive games of the season, falling 61-46.

Florensa was the offensive leader in the game for LCCC with 13 points while also collecting a season best seven rebounds.

Marcela Pinedo Saavedra reached her season average in rebounding with eight to lead the team and had three assists to pace the squad as well.

As a team, LCCC shot just 33 percent from the field and took just four free throws, making all of them. On the other side the Trappers finished the game with a 44 percent clip from the field and forced 30 turnovers by the Golden Eagles, 18 of which came off of steals. LCCC won the rebounding battle 24-17.

The loss drops LCCC to a tie with the Trappers for fourth in the conference, one game ahead of both Central Wyoming and Eastern Wyoming at 2-6. Casper College and Gillette College lead the North standings at 6-1 and 5-1 with Western Wyoming just a game back at 5-2.

"Our next four games are just as important as this game, which was just as important as the last game," Rinaldo said. "Every game has the same importance as a championship game. We need to go into every game wanting it more than the team we are facing no matter what the stakes are."

The Golden Eagles only have one game on the schedule this weekend, but it could have a major say in the postseason seeding with a trip to Torrington to take on the Lancers on Saturday afternoon. With a win, LCCC would have the head-to-head tiebreaker with both CWC and EWC with a win.

Opening tip is scheduled for 2:00 pm and streaming information is available at www.golccc.com.