GILLETTE, WY – A strong start to both the first and second halves weren't enough as the Laramie County Community College women's basketball team dropped their road game with Gillette College 73-55 on Tuesday night, falling to 2-4 in conference play in their third straight loss of the season.

The opening of the game was slow for both teams with the opening basket coming from LCCC with just over seven minutes to go, but it was the Pronghorns who made the opening statement, going on a 9-2 run to take early control.

"We need to start executing what we know has been working for us and adapt to the game," Head Coach Danielle Rinaldo said. "That was one of our goals, to adapt to what they throw at us and we just didn't so I think we just need to have more of a conscious effort in fixing those things as the game continues."

The Golden Eagles began to push the ball inside, and Marcela Pinedo-Saavedra joined Kelly Megown in closing the gap to 11-10 before a Gillette three going into the media timeout had the lead up to 14-10.

Pronghorns extended the lead to 22-12 with 1:30 to go but Megown with two straight trips to the line closed the gap back to 22-16 going into the quarter break.

Gillette would push the lead back to double digits several times after the Golden Eagles were able to close within six points twice in the opening five minutes of the second quarter, but a barrage of three's including a 9-18 clip from the outside in the first half for the Pronghorns kept the runs to a minimum and eventually helped Gillette extend the lead to as much as 15 at 39-24.

LCCC found their own range from deep with threes from Nuria Florensa and Irelynd Barnes to trim it back to 40-30 and gain some momentum, although a late three from Gillette to close the scoring gave the Pronghorns a 43-30 lead at the half.

The two sides played a very back and forth game in the third quarter and LCCC actually got the better of the Pronghorns by quarters end. A change to a man-to-man defense helped shut down the outside shooting and the gap was down to 56-45 at the start of the fourth quarter.

Megown led the offense with eight points including a pair of threes in the quarter and Rinaldo said she did a good job of helping take control.

"I think she saw the open gaps and shot those and did a really good job finishing and finally was hitting some threes. We only shot 18 which is not normal for us, we need to be putting up more threes, but she was a spark offensively for us. We just couldn't get stops on the other end of the floor," Rinaldo said.

Unfortunately, it would be the rebounding game that would decide the final in the fourth quarter. The Pronghorns continued to take advantage of both Pinedo-Saavedra and Bozan on the bench and picked up eleven second half offensive rebounds. That in turn led to the Golden Eagles struggling to reset their defense and the Pronghorns pushed the lead up to as much as 19 with 1:30 to go in the game.

"it's hard when you just have two bigs and they get in foul trouble," Rinaldo said. "Gillette's already a bigger team at quite a few different positions so it obviously hurt us on the boards and slowed us down offensively in what we could do and couldn't do."

The posts returned to the court late in the fourth, but both fouled out shortly after and the rally fell short with LCCC falling for the third consecutive game in conference play 73-55.

LCCC was led in the game by Kelly Megown who finished with 16 points, eight of which came in the third quarter. Pinedo-Saavedra added 13 and Florensa also finished with 13.

The Golden Eagles had a tough time on the glass as mentioned, being out rebounded 45-31 in the game and 17-8 on the offensive boards. The Pronghorns also used the extra offensive chances to their advantage, collecting 21 assists in the game, many of which came on their second chances.

"This is a game we are going to have to go back and look at. We are going to watch it. We are going to learn from it and it will be good for us to bounce back this weekend. It's a bunch of road games for us on the way out so no matter where we play we have to take care of business," Rinaldo said.

The loss drops the Golden Eagles to 11-11 on the season and 2-4 in conference play. They are back on the road for a critical pair of games against Central Wyoming College on Friday night and Northwest College on Saturday afternoon.

Streaming information and tip times for those games can be found at www.golccc.com.