CHEYENNE, WY – The opening game of Region IX North action got off to a great for the Laramie County Community College men's basketball team on the way to an impressive 85-77 win over The Eastern Wyoming College Lancers on Saturday afternoon at the Blue FCU RAC.

"I'm happy with the way that we started and finished the game," Head Coach DeWayne Saulsberry said. "There was about a ten-minute stretch where I thought we got bored, and we have to learn how to stay engaged for 40 minutes and we are learning that."

The Golden Eagles got off to a hot start from three with TJ Coulter leading LCCC to a 16-6 advantage going into the opening media timeout with the freshman hitting three straight from deep, building on his 40 point game against Trinidad State College the week before.

The lead great to 23-10 midway through the first half until the Lancers pushed back with a 12-4 run, trimming the lead to 27-22 with eight minutes remaining.

Both sides would fire off salvos on the way to a 40-32 lead at the break for the Golden Eagles with Coulter leading the charge with 18 points at the half, including a 5-8 showing from deep.

In the second half the Golden Eagles continued to attack early on, and the lead grew to 17 after more deep shots from Coulter as well as Davion Bulter adding to the charge.

"During that run we were just starting to play defense. That's really our MO," freshman Andre Bennett said.

EWC trimmed it back to ten with eleven minutes to go spreading the ball around with ten players scoring in the game and using ball movement to get around the LCCC defense.

The Golden Eagles responded by attacking the smaller size of the Lancers, going to the foul line 24 times in the second half and going 19-24 on their trips, countering every run by the Lancers to cut it to a single possession game.

With 1:46 to go, the Lancers did get their closest of the game, closing it to 79-74 but the Golden Eagles finished off the game with a 6-3 run on the way to closing out the 85-77 win.

The Golden Eagles were led by Coulter who finished with 30 points after going 8 of 11 from the field including 7 of 10 from three and a hitting all seven of his free throws. Butler added another 17 and Bennett finished with 13 to go with 12 rebounds for a double double, the first of his college career.

As a team, LCCC picked up eleven steals, five coming from Brevin Phillips.

Bennett said the team is beginning to find a strong rhythm on the court together.

"We are really just starting to gel together more. Christmas break was really good for us, giving us some time away to reset and we really came back and just ready to go and locked in. We are starting to trust each other more and that's what we need to make a deep run in the conference."

Three-point shooting was the difference in the game, with the Golden Eagles torching the nets by making 43 percent of their shots from deep (10-23) while Eastern Wyoming only made 30 percent of theirs through the game.

The Golden Eagles are back in action this weekend when they make the road trip to Gillette for a battle with the Pronghorns. The opening tip of that contest is scheduled for 7:30 pm.

Streaming information and more can be found at www.golccc.com.