NORTH PLATTE, NE – The Laramie County Community College men's basketball team dropped a tough one on the road to the North Platte Community College Knights on Saturday afternoon, falling 97-76 in the second game of their swing through the Nebraska panhandle, falling to 5-7 on the year.
The Golden Eagles entered the game down their leading scorer in Phoenix Bullock after he was a late scratch due to injury but didn't let it affect them in the opening minutes.
"I was disappointed in the effort and execution, but then, we've never played without our leading scorer," Head Coach DeWayne Saulsberry said. "There were some guys that stepped up but this was one of those nights that we just didn't have the points that we needed."
North Platte was able to build the lead up to 12-6, a three going into the media timeout from TJ Coulter brought them to within three after the opening four minutes.
LCCC kept it within single digits but a run going into the final five minutes of the first half helped the Knights to gain some separation and 8-2 run pushed the lead to double figures for the first time at 30-19 with 5:30 left.
The lead would hover there for the rest of the half and the Golden Eagles were able to trim it back to 46-37 going into the locker room.
Opening the second half, North Platte reeled off a 16-6 run in the first five minutes that was a dagger to the Golden Eagles, and by the 11:15 mark, the Knights had hit a game high lead of 22 when they went ahead 73-51.
"I thought we came out in that first four or five minutes and (North Platte) made some shots, and that's when they really took advantage of Phoenix not being around, because we didn't know where the points were going to come from," Saulsberry said. "The last 10 to 15 minutes of the game I thought we settled ourselves, we just had too big of a hurdle to overcome."
From there, LCCC did manage to go on a few spurts that trimmed the gap to as little as 15 but they were never able to make a serious dent in the lead as the Knights traded baskets on the way to the 97-76 victory, handing LCCC their third consecutive loss to open the month of December.
The Golden Eagles were led by 25 points from Coulter who had his fifth 20-plus point game of the season and second in a row. He added a team high five assists and three steals.
Two others scored in double-figures with 14 from Davion Butler and another 13 from Andre Bennett who recorded a career.
"It was good to see (Andre) fill it up a little bit because normally he's a defensive presence for us, so to see him score some points, I was really happy for him," Saulsberry said.
The Golden Eagles were also outrebounded in the game 57-36 but did limit their turnovers to just twelve to counter. The toughest number came from the Knights shooting 42 percent from three and making 19-22 from the foul line.
"Phoenix isn't just our leading scorer, he's also our leading rebounder," Saulsberry added. "
The loss drops the team to two games below .500 with five games remaining before the end of December. They will travel to Sterling, Colorado for the Region IX Crossover games, with a third game with McCook on Friday, December 13th before turning around on Saturday to play the host Northeastern Junior College Plainsmen at 6:30 pm.
LCCC will close the December portion of the schedule with three games in Arizona on the 18th, 19th, and 20th.
More information on the schedule, including streaming information, can be found at www.golccc.com.