CHEYENNE, WY – After an up and down first half, the Laramie County Community College women's basketball team ran away from North Platte Community College in the final 20 minutes to take down the Knights 74-59 on Saturday afternoon at the Blue FCU RAC, improving to 7-7 on the season.
The Golden Eagles were hot from deep in the first five minutes and pushed ahead 9-7 thanks to basketball from Flora Lukow, Nuria Florensa and Sabela Carro as the balance was evident early in the game for LCCC.
"We came out strong and hitting our shots, especially compared to last night, so we looked a lot better," Head Coach Danielle Rinaldo said. "We looked more comfortable offensively and defensively."
By the end of the quarter, four players had combined to give LCCC a 13-11 lead going into the second.
North Platte came out aggressively in the second quarter to go up 21-15 after an early 10-2 run but that just woke up the Golden Eagles defense. After a timeout, LCCC responded with an 18-5 push that swung the momentum back on their side and gave them their biggest lead of the game at 33-26.
The half did close on a 7-0 North Platte run to tie the game at 33.
Both teams traded leads and ties in the third quarter until the Golden Eagles took the lead for good at 41-39 with 4:30 remaining, and LCCC had their best offensive quarter of the game, putting up 23 points, with most coming from inside from Marcela Pinedo-Saavedra and Carro, who combined for 14 of them.
"(North Platte) was very tough and were doing a lot of trash talking, so we were very motivated, so we took that energy," Carro said.
Up 56-49 going into the final quarter, the LCCC defense didn't let up at all. A steady diet of steals forced by the defense kept North Platte from building any momentum and held them to just 10 points in the quarter, which was their lowest total in the game, while sparking the Golden Eagle offense to 18 points.
"Going into the second half there were some things on defense that we had to fix, like letting (Zaily Mazarin) get into the paint, so we talked about double teaming her in the second half, plugging the paint knowing they weren't shooting very well from the three-point line, and just letting our offense build from our defense."
Half of the offense came from Carro who finished with a career-high 21 points while adding five steals to close out the game with LCCC taking it 74-59.
Carro was the leading scorer for the game on both sides, and really exploded in the second half where she scored 16 of her 21.
"In the first half, things weren't working but I kept working on it and my teammates are always supporting me and saying keep your head up, you can do it, and at the end they motivated me," Carro said.
Pinedo-Saavedra was one rebound shy of her fifth double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds. Florensa finished with 11 points and had a team-high six assists, one more than Lukow who also finished with 11 points and five assists.
As a team, the Golden Eagles won nearly every stat category, shooting 29 percent from three, dealing out 17 assists and forcing 18 steals. They also won the turnover battle by five, forcing North Platte to commit 24.
The win moves the Golden Eagles back to .500 on the year and gives them the season sweep of North Platte, who will be moving up to the Division I level next season and will be a Region IX South member next season.
There is one week remaining for the Golden Eagles in December, as they will be in Torrington to close out the season on December 13th and 14th when they take on the Wyoming and Nebraska All-Stars. Information on the games and streaming can be found at www.golccc.com.