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Monday, Jan. 13

Railers invited to WFMB Shootout

[JAN. 13, 2003]  The Lincoln Railers will be participating in the Sports Radio 1450 Shootout on Saturday, Jan. 18. The basketball games will be played at Prairie Capital Convention Center, on Ninth Street between Adams and Washington in Springfield.

Games and times

Game 1: University of Illinois-Springfield vs. Columbia College, 11:30 a.m.

Game 2: Morton vs. Mount Zion, 2 p.m.

Game 3: Pekin vs. Lincoln, 4 p.m.

Game 4: Chicago Whitney Young vs. Springfield Southeast, 6 p.m.

Game 5: Maywood Proviso East vs. Springfield Lanphier, 8 p.m.

High school basketball

[JAN. 13, 2003] 

At Stanford

Monticello       8   18   31   38     49

Olympia        14   26   31   38     42

Olympia:  Thornton 3-0-8, Williams 0-0-0, Kieser 2-2-6, Schmidgall 2-0-4, Elliott 2-0-6, Criswell 2-4-8, Olson 2-2-7, Schultz 1-1-3.  Totals 14-9-42.  Three-pointers:  Thornton 2, Elliott 2, Olson 1.

LCC men vs. Maranatha Baptist

[JAN. 13, 2003]  The Lincoln Christian College men's basketball team lost in regional action Saturday afternoon in Watertown, Wis. The Crusaders of Maranatha Baptist Bible College (6-4) won 71-52 over the Preachers (7-11).

[Aaron Johnson]

LC women vs. Parkland

[JAN. 13, 2003] 

At Parkland

Lincoln College     25   38   --63

Parkland               48   27   --75

LC:  Lamb 2-0-5, Scott 0-0-0, Hinrichsen 0-0-0, Bell 4-3-12, Pettis 4-2-12, Spears 0-0-0, Dearing 3-2-9, Sims 0-0-0, Coronel 2-2-7, Rossio 3-0-6, Harper 3-0-6, Ernst 2-2-6, Melker 0-0-0, Simpson 0-0-0.  Totals 23-11-63.  Three-pointers:  Pettis 2, Lamb 1, Bell 1,  Dearing 1, Coronel 1.

Illinois State falls in second half to No. 16 Creighton

[JAN. 13, 2003]  NORMAL -- Despite trailing by only a seven-point deficit at halftime, Illinois State could not get it done in the second half as No. 16 Creighton pulled away and defeated the Redbirds 74-55 Saturday at Redbird Arena.

Creighton, 13-1, 4-0 MVC, had only two players score in double figures, with Michael Lindeman turning in 19 and Kyle Korver contributing 17. Tyler McKinney dished out seven assists for the 'Jays to go along with his five points. Creighton shot 60 percent from the field in the game on 30-for-50 shooting, including seven-for-18 from beyond the arc.

Illinois State, 1-11, 0-4 MVC, was led by Vince Greene with 17 points and seven assists, including 12 second-half tallies. Gregg Alexander and Marcus Arnold also turned in 13 points each for the Redbirds, and Arnold led the team on the boards with a game-high-tying six rebounds.

Creighton jumped out to an early 6-0 lead, hitting three jumpers on their first three possessions, but the Redbirds answered with a layup by Bojang that sparked an 10-2 run by Illinois State, giving the 'Birds their first lead of the game, 10-8, with 12:46 remaining before the half.

Shortly after Korver hit his first field goal of the game, a 3-pointer near the top of the key, to give Creighton back the lead, 11-10, Arnold scored seven of the next 10 Redbird points to keep the game close with just over six minutes remaining. However, Korver was able to hit two treys down the stretch that helped give Creighton a nine-point advantage, 31-22, three minutes before the break. The 'Birds got a big boost heading into the locker room when Alexander hit a half-court bank shot at the buzzer to keep the Bluejay lead in single digits, 37-30.

[to top of second column in this article]

Creighton used an 11-3 run to start the second half and took its largest lead of the night at 15, 48-33, with just over 15 minutes remaining in the game. Five players scored for the Bluejays during the run, including Korver with his fourth 3-pointer on the night. The Redbirds fought back, however, and started a 7-0 run of their own highlighted by five Alexander points, which cut the lead to single digits at 48-40.

[Photo by Bob Frank]

Alexander kept the pressure on the Bluejays, creating steals and converting a big 3-point play that brought the 'Birds to within nine, 57-48, with 8:30 remaining. Arnold hit two short jumpers on back-to-back Redbird possessions to keep Illinois State within 10 points with just under six minutes left. However, Creighton used a 12-0 run late to seal the victory and hand the Redbirds their 11th loss of the season.

[Todd Kober, director of media relations,
Illinois State University]

Illinois' Cook named
Big Ten Player of the Week

[JAN. 13, 2003]  PARK RIDGE -- Brian Cook boosted his Big Ten scoring lead with a pair of stellar performances, averaging 28 points and 10 rebounds on 56 percent shooting to earn Big Ten Player of the Week honors and lead the Illini to a 2-0 start atop the conference standings.

The senior forward from Lincoln guided the Illini to a road victory at Minnesota to open the Big Ten season, as he equaled his career high with 25 points by hitting six-of-13 from the field and 13-of-17 from the free-throw line. Cook added 11 rebounds for his 11th career double-double and third this season, which is tied for third among all league players.

The preseason Big Ten Player of the Year put on an even more impressive show against Wisconsin, shattering his career high with 31 points on 12-of-19 shooting, including a pair of treys, in just 26 minutes on the court. Cook added nine rebounds in the win to nearly record another double-double. The 6-10 forward produced 24 of his 31 points in the second half, including a streak of 15 consecutive UI points, as he scored 22 of the Illini's final 26 points in the game. His 31-point effort was the biggest scoring output by an Illinois player since Kevin Turner tallied 35 points against Indiana on Jan. 3, 1998, and his 12 field goals were the most by any Big Ten player this season.

Cook, the 2000 Big Ten co-Freshman of the Year and a second team all-league choice in each of the last two seasons, currently leads the conference in scoring with a career-best 21.7 points per contest while ranking among the top six in three other categories: rebounding (fourth, 8.4), free throw percentage (third, .837) and field goal percentage (sixth, .555). He earns his second Big Ten Player of the Week accolade this season, as he was also honored on Dec. 9, and the third of his career.

[Scott Chipman, associate director of communications, Big Ten Conference]

[Photo by Tom Seggelke]

Articles from the past week

By Jeff Mayfield

[JAN. 13, 2003]  It was basketball alumni day for the Illinois basketball program Saturday in the Assembly Hall. And if you didn't know any better, once the game started you would've sworn that the Illini were playing a brand of basketball that was more like that seen in the '70s and '80s.

What's up with that? Well, do you remember life before the 3-point line? That's the way much of this game played out, even though the Illini eventually hit eight 3-pointers to seal and slug out a 69-63 victory over a Wisconsin team they shared the conference title with a year ago.

Not only that, but the first half didn't exactly give you a great deal of confidence heading into the second half. In fact, Greg Taylor, who was seated on press row, said he had a real bad feeling about the second half. While sitting there he must've slipped me some of his famous Cubs Kool-aid, because I felt we had weathered the storm (where did that overwhelming sense of optimism come from?). Luckily, I was right for once.

Illinois came out of the locker room like a team possessed. Bucky Badger must've forgotten all about Cook, who sat most of the first half on the bench mired with two fouls. But somebody should've told Bucky that Cook would STILL probably start and play a little bit in the second half. Apparently, Bucky never got that message through to the troops, and Cook opened up the second half scoring with a wide-open dunk! James Augustine continued his phenomenal game by scoring a deuce and marksman Sean Harrington nailed a 3, and for all intents and purposes the Illini were 2-0!

[Photo by Tom Seggelke]

According to the LDN's stats, Cook blew up for 24 second-half points and seven rebounds and totally dominated the final 20 minutes. But had it not been for Augustine's huge first half, Cook's performance might well have been for naught! Augustine erupted himself by scoring 13 first-half points, including an important 3 from the corner as the half was winding down. So, with Cook on the bench for over 10 minutes the Illini STILL held a 36-30 lead at intermission.

Then Illinois REALLY got busy. In addition to the before-mentioned second-half offensive barrage, the Illini's defense stiffened as well, not allowing a field goal for the first 9:30 of the frame.

Wisconsin's big star, Kirk Penney, finally did wake up late in the game as he hit some big shots, including two 3-pointers, to pull the Badgers close… but, not close enough. Penney did finish with a double-double, going for 18 points and 12 rebounds as he helped Wisconsin win the rebounding wars 31-29.

But Illinois held The Cheesers to 35 percent shooting over the final 20 minutes after they went for 60 percent in the first half. The Illini also out-assisted them 18-8, and both teams had a hand in 10 turnovers each.

A sold-out Assembly Hall crowd of 16,500 roared their approval for all the former Illini stars as well as the critical victory over the Badgers. However, once school is back in session, many of the rowdiest, best fans will be back to assist the Illini even more!

Things REALLY toughen up for Illinois next as they travel to Iowa on Wednesday and to Indiana on Saturday!

[to top of second column in this article]

Railers tough, too

Speaking of tough, how 'bout those Railers? Going into the hostile environment of Lanphier's home court, not many gave Lincoln much of a chance over Richard McBride and the Lions. But, the Railers took the fight to Lanphier all night long and came away with another hard-fought victory. The Railers now find themselves at 15-2 and IF they can take care of business at home, should be in the driver's seat to upset Lanphier AND Southeast to win yet another CS8 title!

Hats off to Derek Schrader for his outstanding game Friday night and to Ryne Komnick for his stellar play over the last three or four games.

Next up is the shootout versus Pekin at the PCCC.

Last week the Monday night sports showcase hosted some Lady Railers along with our Railer seniors of the week. Brittany Ingram and Jennifer Whalen did an outstanding job representing their school, their team and their program. These girls have really turned their season around over the holidays, and more exciting times are sure to follow!

According to the Charlie Essig report, the Railers are ranked No. 14 in the state, and that was before they pummeled Lanphier. Southeast is 31, with Lanphier ranked at 76. All other CS8 teams were beyond 132. In the City/Suburban Hoops report, Southeast was listed 11 with Lincoln 20. Peoria Central is ranked No. 1. As for players, Richard McBride is ranked No. 2 to Proviso-East's Shannon Brown. But this interesting little piece surfaced on Lincoln's Chris Bunch:

Little men -- big impact: Bunch is a jet-quick point guard. Runs the show despite his diminutive 5'9" size. He is a defensive whiz with excellent vision in the open court and in half-court sets.

Hartem put a bump in Mount Pulaski's roll by taking out the Hilltoppers 52-37 this past weekend. Always rivals, according to several sources this was the first win for Hartem over their nearby foes in quite some time. The win takes Hartem to 7-5 and 3-1 in league play.

We were right when we said that wild-card teams haven't fared all that well. According to the stats, wild-card teams were 9-39 coming into this year's playoffs. So all the smack talk from last week went for naught, and most of those teams, including the ones who made great comebacks, all went down this week. Every home team won. No predictions for next week, but I'd sure like to see boyhood favorites in the big game!

The LDN has just learned that Lincoln's Brian Cook has picked up another Big Ten Player of the Week award! Cook went for 25 against Minnesota and a career-high 31 versus Wisconsin in leading Illinois to a 2-0 first-place week! Nice going, Brian! [See the Big Ten announcement here.]

...Tonight at 6, right here on the LDN link and on CITV and FIX-96.3 FM.

[Jeff Mayfield]

• Last week: "Lincoln Railers splittin' the competition"
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