LCC picks up two wins, suffers injury in Casper

The Lamar Community College men's basketball team traveled this past week to Casper, Wyoming, for the Casper Thanksgiving Classic. The team went 2-1 on the holiday road trip.

On Thursday night, the Lopes earned an easy victory against Rexburg United, winning by nearly 40 points.

Tugay Balyan led the Lopes in scoring with seventeen points with an added eight rebounds.  Justin Holliday and Richard Caldwell each put up fifteen points. Quashaun Breland snagged nine rebounds and blocked two shots.

On Friday night, the Lopes went up against host team Casper College. The game started very slow with neither team scoring for two full minutes.  LCC would score first, but would also suffer an injury and a tough blow to the Lopes team.  Jubrile Belo put up two points but broke his tibia after landing wrong and his teammates had to carry him off the court. 

After the injury, the Lopes were a little slow to recover, letting Casper up by seven points at the half. 

After the halftime break, Lamar came out and scored five points, catching up to Casper. The Lopes fought to regain the win but weren't able to pull it off.  They fell to the Thunderbirds, 64-62.

LCC's Aaris Bonds and Sam Boone each had thirteen points in this contest, while Holliday had ten and Caldwell nine. Sam Boone pulled down nine rebounds and Bonds contributed eight.

Lopes saw a rematch with Colorado Northwestern Community College on Saturday of the tournament, once again topping CNCC team. 

Lamar was outscoring Colorado Northwestern in the first half, leaving LCC up by ten at halftime. As second half came around, Colorado Northwestern started to put up some points but they weren't able to outpace the Lopes team, falling by a final score of 99-92.

Logan Longo and Balyan played well offensively, putting up 23 points each.  Holliday contributed eighteen points to the victory and Boone sixteen.  Boone also pulled in eight rebounds, followed by Breland with seven.

The Lopes overall record stands at 8-4 after the Casper Thanksgiving Classic. They'll return home on Wednesday, November 29, for a rematch against the Adams State University JV team.