As far as basketball teams go, however, the Lincoln College women's
basketball team was superb this weekend. The Lady Lynx tallied two
wins in their season-opening tournament at the Lincoln Center,
defeating Wilbur Wright Community College 72-16 on Friday night
before downing Moraine Valley Community College 60-47 on Saturday
afternoon.
Coach Carol Wilson and her team used a similar formula to win
both games: swarming defense complemented by accurate 3-point
shooting on the offensive end. The Lady Lynx sank 10 of 26 3-point
attempts in the two games, while forcing 63 turnovers from their
opponents. Lincoln College held Wilbur Wright to just 10 percent
shooting from the field in their first game, then held Moraine
Valley to 25 percent shooting in their second contest.
The second game was the more competitive of the two contests.
Lincoln College 60, Moraine Valley 47
The Lady Lynx cruised out to a 34-20 lead in Saturday's contest,
but a rash of turnovers would trouble them just before halftime,
which limited their advantage to only 36-32 at intermission.
Pesky defense would allow Lincoln College to pull away, though,
in the second half, as the Lady Lynx would extend their lead to as
much as 58-38. Moraine Valley shot just 4 of 27 from the field in
the second half.
"Today we got out to a good start," said Wilson. "We had them
down early by playing good defense, and we did a pretty good job on
the boards. We hit the open shot without trying to do too much
offensively; then we kind of let it slip away because of some
careless mistakes."
Those careless mistakes materialized into turnovers. Lincoln
College finished the game with 31 turnovers in all.
The Lady Lynx used a 64-48 rebounding edge to help limit the
problems caused by their turnovers.
"If you can play defense and rebound, you can stay in the game,"
said Wilson. "And defense and rebounding are two things you don't
have to be athletic or tall to do. I stress that because we aren't
tall and we have to do all of the little things on defense to combat
the mismatches we're going to have because of our height."
Lincoln College was led by Ally Friday, who finished with 13
points and also had three blocked shots. Freshman Cassidy Jennings
finished with 11 points, including three 3-pointers, and had five
assists. LCHS graduate Edraniel Tookes finished with six points and
nine rebounds.
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Lincoln College 72, Wilbur Wright 16
The Lady Lynx also used a fast start to their benefit in their
first contest, pouncing on Wilbur Wright to take a 44-3 halftime
lead.
The game's outcome was never really in jeopardy from that point,
and Wilson was able to use every available player for significant
minutes. Eleven players in all got into the scoring column for
Lincoln College.
"It's early. I want to give them all a chance to see what they
can do. But it's going to take all of them," said Wilson. "I think
if I have more people step up, then that will take some of the
pressure off of Ally. My biggest concern coming in was how many
double teams Ally would see. (On Saturday) they tried double-teaming
her and other people stepped up. That's what it's going to take."
Tookes led Lincoln in scoring, finishing with 13 points and six
rebounds. Jennings added 12 points while Friday added 10 points.
Sophomores Erika Spiller and Jessica Miller added eight points and
seven points respectively.
Wilson was pleased with Tookes' performance throughout the
weekend, both on offense and in terms of rebounding.
"She's doing little things right. Ed is getting a real feel for
the game now. She knows what to expect," said Wilson. "I wish she
was 4 inches taller. She uses her body so well, I just wish she had
that other 4 inches to get those rebounds that she's just missing by
fingertips. That's all I ask her to do is play hard.
"I think she and Cassidy played great for their first two games
as freshmen. They've come in, done the little things right; they
haven't panicked. They've made some mistakes, but I'm OK with that
as they try to learn from them."
While content with two victories, Wilson is hoping to see her
team improve in limiting their turnovers over their three games this
week. The Lady Lynx travel to Sauk Valley on Monday night before
hosting Black Hawk East and Lakeland on Wednesday and Saturday.
"I am pleased with the first two games. We played well," said
Wilson. "Hopefully in the next week, especially before we play
Lakeland, we can work on handling pressure a little bit better."
[By JUSTIN TIERNEY]
Lincoln
College women's basketball
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