Lopes pick up one win, loss

The Lopes hosted two teams in the past week's action in the Wellness Center.  On Tuesday, the Lopes beat Northwest Kansas Technical College (NWKTC) JV, followed by a loss to Laramie County Community College on Saturday, going 1-1 on the week. 

Lamar beat the NWKTC JV team by the score of 111-50 to start the week's contests.  LCC took control of the game from the tip, starting the game 14-2 and then never looking back.

Sophomore Wayne Stewart led all scorers with 21 points and adding five rebounds.  Four other Lopes were in double figures on the night: Justin Holliday and Tugay Balyan each had 11, Andre Hardy and Isaiah Martin added 10 apiece with Martin also collecting 11 rebounds on the night.  This was Martin's sixth double-double of the year.

On Saturday afternoon, LCC hosted Laramie County Community College out of Wyoming. The game, which was a battle between the first and second ranked teams in the Region 9 standings, lived up to the hype.

LCC began the game red-hot and jumped on a 12-4 lead but Laramie County cut the lead to 2, after which neither side enjoyed more than a two-point lead for the rest of the first half.  The game was tied six different times in the final eight-plus minutes.

In the second half, after exchanging baskets, Laramie County found an offensive rhythm while Lamar struggled to find baskets. Laramie County took a 12-point lead with eight minutes to go in the game, when Lamar began to make small runs and cut the lead to as low as 4 points with less than a minute to go.  However, Elijah Oliver's huge three-point shot with 35 seconds left on the clock put Laramie County up by seven.  Laramie County came up with a win over Lamar, 75-82.

Lamar's Wayne Stewart once again led all scorers with 25 points and added 8 rebounds.  Michael Skinner chipped in 15 points and four steals, while Taylor Shepard added 11 points off the bench.

After this week, Lamar moves to 18-3 (5-2) for season.

Up next, Lamar will host its rival Otero Junior College in Wellness Center on Friday, January 27, at 7:00pm.  The LCC women's team will start the night against OJC at 5:00pm.

Join the Lopes as they WHITE OUT the gym.  Entrance to the games is only $3.00 for those wearing white.  The first 75 to the games who pay the full admission price of $5.00 will receive a white LCC t-shirt. 

As always, fans 18 years old and under get in free.