CHEYENNE, WY – The Laramie County Community College women's basketball team rallied from their loss on Friday night to earn a convincing 78-43 win over Central Wyoming College, improving to 2-1 in conference play and 11-8 overall on the season.
"Coming off of a tough loss last night, it was good to see we didn't carry that over into today," Head Coach Danielle Rinaldo said. "It's nice when you can make shots, handle the ball, and not have too many turnovers so it was really good to see the resilience and the mindset going into today."
LCCC got off to a very quick start, jumping out to an 8-0 run on the way to a 26-10 first quarter score. The effort was paced by a torrid start from Kelly Megown who began the game going 3-3 from beyond the arc and 4-4 from the field on the way to 11 points in the opening period.
The Rustlers were able to regain some of their balance in the second quarter after the Golden Eagles pushed the lead to 20 at 30-10, trimming the gap back to 18 at 34-16 at the media timeout. By the end of the quarter, the two teams were right where they had ended the first with the Golden Eagles leading 40-24.
Out of the halftime locker room, LCCC came out on a mission again, this time attacking more inside and using defense to power their way to a 10-0 run in the opening two minutes, forcing a CWC timeout after they had only managed one shot during the run.
Rinaldo said her message to the team at the break was not to let up on the pressure they were applying.
"We still had to press the gas and keep going. Keep executing what was working for us and make them adjust. We shot really well that first half and kept on putting the pressure on defensively."
The defense continued to roll in the quarter, limiting the Rustlers to only seven points and transitioning to offense as the lead ballooned to 35 points by the end of the quarter and the Golden Eagles were in control 66-31 heading to the fourth.
The offense transitioned again to the outside for LCCC early in the fourth with Megown nailing her fifth three of the game early and was joined by Sabela Carro from beyond the arc to help seal the game away.
Rinaldo was able to get her bench into the game for much of the fourth quarter but that didn't bring down any of the defensive aggression from LCCC and they limited Central Wyoming to just three field goals in the quarter and only allowed 19 points total from the Rustlers in the second half in one of their most dominant halves of the season on the defensive side of the ball.
The 78-43 win was paced by Megown, who finished with a career high 24 points after going 6-6 from the field in the first half including 4-4 from three. The sophomore guard from Las Vegas also added six rebounds and three assists to her box score.
"I had been waiting for it to snap back so it felt very good," Megown said. "With the whole team, the energy just kept going up, so I think that helped us moving the ball around and making shots."
Two other Golden Eagles finished in double figures, including Carro, who tallied 12 along with eight rebounds and three blocks. Marcela Pinedo-Saavedra finished with 10 points and six rebounds, four of which were offensive.
All but one player for LCCC scored in the game.
Defense was the highlight of the game, and it showed in the CWC shooting percentage as the Golden Eagles limited them to just 23 percent from the field and forced 18 turnovers of which 15 came off of LCCC steals.
"This was our first time really showing our 1-3-1 so seeing that be executed and giving us so much momentum to our offense was really good to see," Rinaldo said. "I thought we saw the court a lot better and shared the ball really well and our shot selection was really good tonight."
On the offensive side, LCCC finished shooting 34 percent from three-point range and won every statistical category, finishing with 44 rebounds, 15 assists and had only nine turnovers in the game in their lowest amount of the season.
The team is back at home for another pair of games against Western Wyoming Community College and Casper College on Friday, January 31st and Saturday February 1st to close out a five-game homestand.
More information on the upcoming Golden Eagles schedule and other team news can be found at www.golccc.com.