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 After Friday night's win by a team playing without its top two
scorers, the Railers looked to continue the momentum against the
Tornadoes. With Jordan Nelson and Nathaniel Smith again unavailable,
the Railers picked up where they left off the night before against
Jacksonville.
Holding Taylorville (0-9, 0-4) scoreless until
Chaz Dees' basket with 15 seconds left in the first quarter, the
defense was in top form. The Railer pressure forced Taylorville into
a number of early miscues, tipped numerous passes away and made
life rather miserable for anyone in the home- standing white. The
offense got off to a pretty good start as well by scoring their
first three baskets from beyond the 3-point line. Brant Coyne
got the scoring started from just past the top of the key, followed
by an Austin Kirby trey. The next seven points came from the game's
high scorer, Christian Van Hook. The junior finished the night with
17 points, scoring in a variety of ways.
 His first and last
field goals of the night were from 3-point range, while
acrobatic layups, lob-play lay-ins and jumpers where he seemed
suspended in air helped Van Hook to a career high in the scorebook.
When asked just how good Van Hook could be, Lincoln coach Neil Alexander
had some high praises, with a hint of caution. "The only person that
can stop Christian is Christian. He could be one of the top players
in our league, if he wants to," Alexander said.
With a 13-2 lead heading into the second quarter, the contest seemed
to be following the script line by line. On Friday night, freshman
Max Cook provided some solid play in his first varsity action. In
Taylorville, sophomore Will Podbelsek provided a spark off the
bench.
After leading the sophomore squad to an easy 56-20 win earlier in
the night, Podbelsek continued to feel right at home in Tornado
Alley. He started the second quarter scoring with a steal at halfcourt and a layup and, following a free throw from Van Hook,
connected on a 3-pointer from the left wing, the first of what
should be many long-range baskets from the sophomore. His five
points helped Lincoln to their largest lead of the half at 19-4.
However, don't think that Taylorville coach Jim Novar's squad was going to give
up without an effort. Taylorville, thanks to the outside shooting of
Dees, put together a 9-0 run of their own to cut the Lincoln lead to
only six at 19-13. After a couple of free throws from Matt Hays,
Jordan Gesner stepped up before halftime. Gesner, the leader on
Friday night with 14, drained two 3s late in the half to help
the Railers take a 27-15 lead into intermission.
Taylorville came out hoping to draw a little closer and did, for a
while, thanks to an early basket. From there, the Railers put the
game out of reach with an 18-2 run to push the game to 45-19 early
in the fourth.
Coyne scored five of his 10 points with a 3 and a
nice move to the basket after faking a 3-pointer and driving to
the basket.
Van Hook totaled nine of the points during the run, including an
impressive off-balance catch while in midair and a layup going against
his body.
The Tornadoes' only baskets of the fourth quarter were 3-pointers,
but not even the newly introduced 4-point shot by the Harlem
Globetrotters could have helped Taylorville on Saturday night.
Another sophomore, Tommy Harris, tallied his first varsity points
with a jumper just inside the free-throw line. His bucket ended the
scoring as the Railers held their third straight opponent under 26
points with the 49-25 victory.
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The Railers were led by Van Hook's 17 points, with Coyne joining
him in double figures with 10. Gesner connected for eight, while
Kirby and Podbelsek added five. Hays and Harris each had two.
It's hard to believe the Lincoln schedule is already about a third
over. We will finally get a chance to see how good this team really
is beginning next week in Collinsville. The Railers have been
dominant over the first nine games, winning by an average of over 21
points a game. Their closest game was the season-opener, a 12-point win over Belleville Althoff. Right after Collinsville, the
first weekend of conference play in 2011 sees Lincoln at home
against Springfield and then on the road at Southeast. However, it may not be the first time the Railers and Spartans
cross paths, as both teams are at Collinsville, Lincoln the No. 1 seed
and Southeast the No. 3.
As mentioned earlier, Lincoln's next contest will be on Dec. 28, the first day of the Schnucks Holiday Classic in
Collinsville. The top-seeded Railers will battle Decatur Eisenhower,
with the scheduled tip time of 4 p.m.
 Since this will be the last
recap prior to Christmas, I certainly hope all our readers find
happiness in what you find under the tree, but more important, that you find joy by being with those around the
tree. For those unable to be with family members, be assured they
are thinking of you just as you are of them. Merry Christmas!!
___
Lincoln (49)
Van Hook 6 3-6 17, Coyne 4 0-0 10, Gesner 3 0-0 8, Kirby 2 0-0 5,
Podbelsek 2 0-0 5, Harris 1 0-0 2, Hays 0 2-2 2, Olson 0 0-0 0,
Krusz 0 0-0 0, Cook 0 0-0 0, Eimer 0 0-0 0. Team 18 5-8 49. 3-point field goals 8 (Van Hook 2, Gesner 2, Coyne 2, Kirby,
Podbelsek).
Taylorville (25)
Dees 14, Peters 4, Wilhour 3, Fulk 2, Bollinger 2. Team 9 3-7 25.
3-point field goals 4 (Dees 3, Wilhour).
Score by quarters: End of first quarter -- LCHS 13, Taylorville 2
Halftime -- LCHS 27, Taylorville 15
End of third quarter -- LCHS 40, Taylorville 19
[By JEFF BENJAMIN]
Jeff Benjamin's Railer basketball articles
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