The Gillette College men's basketball team hadn't won two games in a row in 38 days.

So the Pronghorns ended that drought Saturday night with a 69-64 win over Central Wyoming College at CCHS South Campus.

George Edwards, the fifth leading scorer in Region IX, led the Pronghorns with 21 points. Matt Strickland had 14. James Hunter came off the bench to add 10 points and seven rebounds in just 12 minutes.

"We need to keep working on getting the ball in the paint, whether it's a post touch or off the penetration," Pronghorns coach Shawn Neary said. "I thought our guys did a good job of getting the ball in the lane or finding a post to make the play."

Gillette chipped away at a Rustlers' lead in the first half and led 37-32 at the intermission. The Pronghorns were able to maintain that lead throughout the second half for a critical conference win at home.

"George Edwards had a double-double. It was another great effort by the freshman," Neary said. "Hunter was in foul trouble, but he made some critical plays in the second-half stretch where we started pulling away."

Malachi Roberts and Preston Eaton had 15 points each for Central Wyoming.

The Pronghorns (16-10 overall, 7-6 in Region IX) go into the final week of the regular season ranked fifth in the Northern Conference with three games left.

They play at Casper College on Wednesday night and travel to Northwest College in Powell on Saturday. Then Gillette College wraps up the regular season Tuesday night at home against Sheridan College.

A lot will shake out in a short amount of time, but Gillette is focused on Wednesday night and a Thunderbird team that has won eight of its last 10 games.

"Casper is one of the top teams in our league right now, no question," Neary said. "They're always good at home. It's a huge challenge, but it's that time of the year and we need to step up."

Sheridan is on top of the North Conference, with Casper and Miles (Mont.) Community College in second and third, respectively.

Gillette College can move up in the regional seedings as it takes on three of the top four teams.

"Our guys are up for the challenge," Neary said. "We've said all along we can score, but defensively we have got to continue to get better. You have to be able to get stops. We have to do a better job on the ball. We have to contest three's. It's been an issue and I don't think we can get better until we do a better job on the ball."