Lopes kick off season with 3 W’s

(Lamar, Colorado; November 7, 2016)  The Lamar Community College men's basketball team opened the season by winning three home games in one week. 

LCC played efficiently on offense in the season opener with a 97-61 win over the Southeast Colorado All-stars Tuesday night at Wellness Center.  The win gave an indication of what the Lopes needed to work on for the games over the weekend, including a match-up with Colorado Northwestern Community College on Friday.

The Lopes demonstrated impressive rebounding and sharing the ball in the season opener with 58 total rebounds and 23 total assists as a team.

"We started slow on defense, even though our offense was clicking," head coach Sercan Fenerci said. "We talked in the locker-room in the half time to work on our defensive rotations and rebounding better. The guys executed the plan in the second half to give us a comfortable lead to win the game."

Wayne Stewart led the team with 26 points and six rebounds.

Other strong performers for the Lopes included Michael Skinner (13 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists), Richard Caldwell (13 points, 3 rebounds), and Devon Jacobs (10 rebounds and 6 assists).

The Friday night match-up saw the Lopes take on Colorado Northwestern Community College.

The first half of Friday's game was a battle as both teams held strong defensively.  LCC held a 2-point lead at the half with a score of 31-29.

Second half started with the same defensive intensity with both teams exchanging hard-earned points.  The Lopes then found a rhythm offensively and began getting easier points to quickly build a double digit lead toward the middle of the second half.  LCC took control for the rest of the game and came up with a 74-53 win over CNCC.

"We knew we could do better pushing the ball and forcing turnovers on defense. We discussed that during the half-time and the guys did a great job," said head coach Sercan Fenerci.

Stand-out performers for the CNCC game included Richard Caldwell (18 points, 4 rebounds), Wayne Stewart (12 points, 6 rebounds, 3 blocks), Michael Skinner (13 points, 4 rebounds, 5 steals, 4 assists), and Isaiah Martin (8 points, 14 rebounds, 5 blocks).

The Lopes hosted Adams State University-JV for the third and final game of the week on Saturday afternoon.

LCC started the game hot with a 14-1 run.  ASU-JV started to make some shots to close to gap, but the Lopes' hot streak continued the entire first half.  The Lopes went to the locker-room up, 59-33. 

The second half mirrored the first and the final score for the night was 107-76 Lopes.

"Guys did really well on the both ends of the court in the first half to give us a very comfortable lead to close the game out in the second," Lopes' coach Fenerci said. "We still need to work on some defensive rotations and moving the ball on offense."

Devon Jacobs led the team with 24 points on the night.  Isaiah Martin finished with 10 points, 3 blocks and team leading 16 rebounds, while Andre Hardy added 13 points and 14 rebounds for the Lopes.

The team will be on the road to Clarendon College on Tuesday, November 8, and then to Northwest Kansas Technical College over the weekend for the Pizza Hut Classic.  Here they will face Northwest Kansas Tech-JV on Friday and Northwest Kansas Tech on Saturday.