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 On Saturday night, it was the Railers
who added one more to
their total with a dominant performance worthy of the No. 2
team in Class 3A as Lincoln knocked off the Orphans 52-27.
During his postgame radio interview, Lincoln coach Neil Alexander
alluded to the hardwood history at Centralia.
"This is the winningest high school program in the country
-- not
just the state, the country. Coming in, we made a point about that.
They have a large digital display where we came in with the number
2,040 (number of wins in Centralia history) on it," Alexander said.
"We simply made a point that they would not be going to 2,041
tonight. The guys took a lot of pride in that."
The Lincoln performance on Saturday night was as impressive, if not
more so, than the arena in which the game was held. Centralia boasts
a high school gym that rivals the amenities, look and wow factor of
a facility such as Illinois Wesleyan's Shirk Center. The multiple
scoreboards, balconies overlooking each corner and a live video
feed of the game on the overhead scoreboard could not surpass the
efforts, both offensively and defensively, of the Railers.
Lincoln (13-2) never trailed in the contest, thanks to Ben
Brackney's early 3 on the game's first possession. Centralia did
get an inside basket to cut the game to 3-2, but no one would have
guessed that the Orphans (10-5) would draw no closer the rest of the
evening.
A free throw from Jordan Nelson and two more baskets from Brackney
gave Lincoln an 8-4 at the end of the first quarter. In a
chicken-or-egg scenario, it's hard to tell if the first-quarter
score was so low thanks to Lincoln's stifling defense or Centralia's
ability to be patient.
Those in attendance will attest that the Lincoln defense kept
Centralia at bay all night. The home team was forced into many
passes around the perimeter -- not looking for the best shot, simply
looking for any shot. The Railer zone moved as well as it had all
season.
Passes to the inside were tipped away; hustling double teams
forced turnovers in the corners and at the sidelines. It seemed
Lincoln's defense could do no wrong, while Centralia must have
thought coach Alexander had seven players on defense. The Railers
were just that good on this night.
The second quarter belonged to Nelson. The junior, who is now
only eight points away from 1,000 in his career, scored all 12 Railer points by connecting on four
3-pointers.
Nelson, possibly spurred on by the pregame chant of "Over-rated"
from the Centralia student section, was hitting 3s on set plays
as well as finding the slightest of openings to pull the trigger
from long range.
All of Nelson's offense was aided by more Lincoln defense to take
the lead into halftime at 20-11. Scoring for the Railers was easy to
calculate at the half with Nelson leading with 13 and Brackney
adding seven.
For years, impressive Railers performances have included long runs
starting on the defensive end. Saturday night was no exception as
the Railers went on a 29-4 through the third quarter and midway into
the fourth.
Simply put, Centralia had no answer for the Lincoln defense.
Brackney scored 10 in a row during this streak, while junior
Nathaniel Smith added all seven of his points during the stretch as
well.
After Alexander emptied the bench, giving everyone time on the
court, the Orphans were able to close the gap, but with no chance of
it being close enough to win.
Coach Al was quite pleased with the performance, saying: "I'm
really proud of the kids and how they battled tonight. We put a lot
of effort out on the defensive end and it showed."
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The Railers were led by 20 from Nelson, the 14th time in his
career he has hit for 20 or more. Brackney added 17, with
Smith adding seven. Others in the scorebook were
Brandon Miller hitting from 3 in the final minutes, Brant Coyne
and Christian Van Hook adding two each, while Austin Kirby hit 1 of
2
from the free-throw line.
Lincoln finished the week at 2-1, still trying to shake off the loss
to Southeast, a loss that coach Alexander said still makes him "sick
to think about it."
As disappointed and frustrated as the coach was after the game on
Tuesday, there may have been some perspective tapped, as Alexander
said, "but if we were able to learn something about effort and
ourselves from that loss, maybe that loss was good for us."
Another busy stretch for Lincoln begins on Friday night at SHG,
followed by a home contest Saturday against Lake Park Roselle.
The next week is the Meijer Winter Classic down in Chatham. It's
very hard to believe this season is about at the halfway point.
Other scores from the Central State Eight on Saturday:
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Waukegan 63, Southeast 54
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Centennial 63, Lanphier 56
-
Springfield 53, No.
33 Richwoods 42
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Limestone 60, SHG 55
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Jacksonville 53, Bethalto Civic Memorial 33
The season stats are usually updated by midweek, so look for those
here as well as coverage of every game at
www.lincolndailynews.com.
___
LINCOLN (52)
Nelson 7 1-2 20, Brackney 7 0-0 17, Smith 3 0-0 7, Miller 1 0-0 3,
Van Hook 1 0-0 2, Coyne 1 0-02, Kirby 0 1-2 1, Gesner 0 0-0 0, Olson
0 0-0 0, Turner 0 0-0 0, Hays 0 0-0 0, Krusz 0 0-0 0, Bowlby 0 0-0
0, Green 0 0-0 0. Team 20 2-4 52. 3-point field goals 10 (Nelson 5, Brackney 3, Smith, Miller).
Centralia (27)
Fritch 8, Rush 5, Jones 4, Buchanan 4, Kwiatkowski 3, McConnaughy 2,
Dabney 1.
Lincoln 8-12-20-12
Centralia 4-7-4-12
Other notes:
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The win was No. 1,578 in Lincoln history.
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Ben Brackney is now just one
3 behind David Pickering (132)
for 3s made in a career. He is also drawing closer to 1,000, just
47 points away.
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The Railers remain perfect when leading at the half (13-0).
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The 25-point win was the largest victory margin of the season. The
defense also had their best performance, allowing only 27 points.
The previous best was 34 against Taylorville.
[Special report by JEFF BENJAMIN]
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