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Monday, Jan. 27

High school basketball

[JAN. 27, 2003] 

Boys

Glenwood tournament

Lincoln def. Taylorville 56-38.

Lincoln def. Mount Zion 78-54.
 Farmer led Lincoln with 22 points. Other Lincoln stats:  Bunch 19, Young 12, Schrader 8, Komnick 5, Gallagher 4, Werner 4, Heidbreder 2, Bruns 2.

Congratulations to Farmer, Bunch and Young, who made the tournament team!

Congratulations to Lincoln for winning all 5 games of the Glenwood tournament!

At Havana

Hartsburg-Emden def. Havana 79-60.

[Photo by Bob Frank]

[Click here for more LCHS photos]

High school wrestling

[JAN. 27, 2003] 

Olympia invitational

3.  Olympia 142; 8.  Lincoln 57.

LeRoy invitational

5.  Warrensburg-Latham 113

Championship matches:
125 lbs:  Jay (W-L) pinned J. Wilson (Oakwood), 1:14
215:  Barud (W-L) pinned Cranford (Eureka), 5:02

Third-place matches:
145:  Hyde (W-L) pinned Fike (LeRoy)
289:  Wingard (W-L) dec. Winslow (Oakwood)
275:  Meiniger (W-L) pinned Cox (Midwest Central)

Illinois State falls to Evansville despite strong start

[JAN. 27, 2003]  EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- Trey Guidry led all scorers with 27 points, including 21 in the first half, but Illinois State could not sustain its strong first-half play and dropped its eighth consecutive Missouri Valley Conference game to Evansville 85-74.

Illinois State, 1-15, 0-8 MVC, had a 41-33 halftime advantage and shot 52 percent from the field in the first frame. The Redbirds were outscored 51-33 and could manage only 31 percent shooting from the field after the break. Vince Greene finished with 14 points, while Marcus Arnold contributed 11 points. Baboucarr Bojang also finished with nine points and a team-high seven rebounds.

Evansville, 7-9, 3-4 MVC, found most of its offense in the lane, outscoring the 'Birds 46-22 in the paint. Ian Hanavan led the Aces with 23 points and eight rebounds, while Clint Cuffle turned in 21 points and eight boards. Evansville shot 64 percent from the field in the second half and made only four 3-pointers in the game.

Illinois State returns home to continue its conference season with a matchup against Northern Iowa on Wednesday, Jan. 29. The game is slated for a 7:05 p.m. start.

[Rob Huizinga, athletics media relations,
Illinois State University]

Illinois survives trip to Penn State

By Greg Taylor

[JAN. 27, 2003]  Illinois played most of the game on Saturday without All-America candidate Brian Cook and squandered a 19-point first-half lead but finally put away the pesky Nittany Lions of Penn State University and beat the Lions 75-63 in Big Ten action in State College, Pa.

Cook, who played just 17 minutes and finished with 11 points and only one rebound, was saddled with foul trouble and found coach Bill Self's doghouse after receiving a very rare technical foul in the first half, which also counts as a personal foul. Coming to the rescue, however, were two freshmen, James Augustine and Dee Brown.

Let's start with Augustine -- he was incredible. The freshman from Mokena led the Illini with 19 points and 12 rebounds in just 28 minutes of action. Also of note were the five offensive rebounds and the two blocked shots that helped Illinois survive on the road in the Big Ten -- something few teams have been able to do this season. Illinois is now 2-2 on the road in the Big Ten.

Brown was equally as impressive and probably more important. The human fast break from Maywood played all but one minute of the game and finished with an amazing 11 assists. Dee also scored seven points and finished with six rebounds -- not bad for a player who stands just 5-foot-11.

Others came up big as well, including:

--Nick Smith: He overcame his asthma troubles to play 27 minutes and finish with 10 points.

--Luther Head: The Chicago sophomore played 32 minutes, was second on team in scoring with 13 points and played good defense for most of the game. He also had a highlight-reel dunk on which he was called for a technical for hanging on the rim (weak call!).

[to top of second column in this article]

Three stats that are real positives for Illinois:

--Illinois shot an amazing 57 percent from the field -- a great percentage anywhere, but especially on the road.

--Illinois out-rebounded the Lions 31-23.

--Illinois had a phenomenal 23 assists on 32 made baskets.

Several aspects of the game did not go Illinois' way, including:

--Illinois shot just 10 free throws compared to Penn State's 19 attempts.

--Illinois committed 16 turnovers -- way too many against a team like Penn State.

--Illinois once again battled foul trouble, as Augustine fouled out and Cook and Smith finished with four.

Illinois returns to action Wednesday night in Champaign against surprise conference-leader Michigan. The Illini will have to play much better if they want to run their conference record to 5-2 this week. Game time is 7 p.m., and the game can be seen on WCIA-TV, Channel 3. Illinois then makes an appearance on the national stage on Sunday (Feb. 2) with a game at Michigan State. CBS will televise, and the game will be played at noon.

[Greg Taylor]

Articles from the past week

By Jeff Mayfield

[JAN. 27, 2003]  To any Lincoln or Logan County serviceman or woman who has just been deployed, may we just say, "May GOD go with you." You have our deepest respect as well as our thoughts and prayers. A special hello to former Railer Jon Barton who is on his way to Kuwait.

Once again the Super Bowl failed to live up to all the hype, as this game was all Bucs from start to finish. Don't know why the Raiders went away from their forte. Notice that on their first several drives, after gaining five or six yards on first-down plays, they would run the ball up the middle on second downs, thus leaving them with third-and-four or five situations that needed perfect execution. Either credit the Bucs' defense or the Raiders' ineptitude. Former Lincoln resident Curt Swan, now a Bucs' season-ticket holder, is still dancing on the streets of Clearwater Beach as we go to post!!!

As you can see by the updated CS8 standings, the Lincoln Lady Railers are also making their move up the charts of girls basketball in our area. Ever since the Christmas tourney, these ladies have been on a mission. Here's to a successful venture!

Central State Eight standings

(Conference games)

Southeast 7-1

Taylorville 7-3

Chatham Glenwood 7-3

Springfield 6-2

Lincoln 5-5

Sacred Heart-Griffin 4-6

Jacksonville 2-8

Lanphier 0-10

Upcoming game: Tuesday, Jan. 28, 7:30 p.m. -- Normal Community at Lincoln

The Lincoln College Lynx are definitely finding their stride early in the second semester. Behind 15 points from both Terrance Chapman and Jamaal Thompson, the Lynx buried Lincoln Land Saturday 74-51. Michael Fowler also tossed in 13 for the Lincoln cause. The win takes LC to 13-6 and a sparkling 6-0 in league play.

No report.

…picked up another win over Grace over the weekend and have now won two in a row!

OK, maybe I was a little too stoked over the Railers the last couple of weeks. If you want to blame me for their less-than-stellar performances against Chatham-Glenwood and Taylorville, so be it. But good teams find ways to win when they're not playing all that well. However you slice it and dice it, Lincoln went 5-0 and won the first-ever midwinter classic in Chatham. We think that's a good thing and can only help the Railers ready themselves for a potential long run in the postseason. Getting Brock Werner back to full strength wouldn't hurt either.

[Photo by Bob Frank]

Railer coach Neil Alexander is quietly within a handful of wins of becoming the winningest Railer coach in history… Stay tuned for that story! Also, in case you haven't been doing the math at home the last two years… Did you know that Lincoln, not Lanphier or Springfield, is the CS8 all-time leader in most wins?

[to top of second column in this article]

Teams	Won	Lost	Pct.
Lincoln	104	28	.788
Springfield	92	39	.697
Springfield Lanphier	81	51	.614
Springfield Southeast	81	52	.609
Jacksonville	50	80	.385
Springfield S-H Griffin	47	85	.356
Chatham-Glenwood	36	95	.275
Taylorville	35	96	.267

These are the all-time CS8 standings through Jan. 16 of this year. This is a true testament to our hardworking players and outstanding coaches. Hopefully the Railers will put in some more distance on their opponents before this season is out!

Speaking of records:

Railer varsity 21-2

Sophs 6-4

Frosh 9-3

B 7-1

Railer assistant coaches Eric Ewald, Josh Komnick, Darren Worth and Ryan Cross continue to do a phenomenal job with this program under Alexander's tutelage. Nice going, men. Keep up the good work!

Mount Pulaski 14-6

The Hilltoppers beat a good Delavan team 72-48, welcoming back Brian Clements, who had 14 points on the night. And how ‘bout Justin Anderson's 38-point outburst against Athens this past week?!

Illini Central 11-6

The Cougars lost a heartbreaker to Riverton and fell to 11-6. They host Ursuline on Tuesday night.

Hartem 8-8

The Stags also lost a nail-biter to Beardstown.

Warrensburg-Latham 16-0

The Cardinals dumped Shelbyville 80-53 and carry a No. 5 state ranking!

West Lincoln-Broadwell took the eighth-grade county title with a 46-35 win over previously unbeaten Hartsburg-Emden. Carroll Catholic outlasted Mount Pulaski for third place.

In the seventh-grade grade county championship Hartsburg did overtake WL-B and Carroll repeated their performance over Mount Pulaski as the seeds held true.

Lincoln Junior High won their last regular-season contests as well. The eighth-graders pounded Argenta 50-34, and the seventh-graders eked past ‘em 34-32!

…will face Springfield-Southeast and Jacksonville on Tuesday.

Join Greg Taylor at 6 p.m. on the LDN's live link or on CITV 5 or FIX 96.3. He hopes to host a contingent of Railer seniors and also hopes to give away some FREE college basketball tickets! Dial 735-3306 to get in on the FUN!

…To those of you who have wished me well in the economic development arena. Know that I won't be able to get the job done without YOUR help. Hopefully TOGETHER we can accomplish some good things.

Have a GREAT week, everybody!

[Jeff Mayfield]

• Last week: "Railers keep rollin'"
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