LINCOLN 34, DEERFIELD 33

Send a link to a friend  Share

[February 19, 2015]  LINCOLN —  Lincoln senior Will Cook scored his team’s final seven points including four clutch free throws in the game’s last 53 seconds to help the Railers hang on and survive with a 34-33 win over non-conference foe Deerfield. It was a game that saw Lincoln not get their first lead until early in the fourth quarter and someway Lincoln picked up the victory.

“As pleased as I was about our performance last night, tonight was just as frustrating,” Coach Neil Alexander commented after his team’s 20th win. “Unfortunately, we are playing just like we practice. We’ll have a good practice and then one that is so-so. Last night, we played really well and tonight we struggled.”

The Warriors did not come in to Roy S. Anderson and be intimidated. As Coach Alexander mentioned “they were the better team tonight, we just got lucky.” Both teams struggled to get on the board and it was not until halfway through the first quarter when Deerfield’s Jordan Sherman scored the game’s first points. Defensively, for most of the night, the Railers allowed too much interior passing and open shots, leading Deerfield to lead for much of the game.

Lincoln was able to tie the game on Aron Hopp’s first basket of the night. The junior led the way with 13 points on the night. A three from the Warriors’ Jordan Baum, again made possible by nicely executed interior passing leading to Baum being open behind the arc put Deerfield up three. The Railers stayed close as Gavin Block drove the baseline for his only field goal of the first half. Lincoln’s leading scorer tallied only four for the night with many of his outside shot falling short. After another three from the visitors, Payton Ebelherr split a pair of free throws as the first quarter came to an end with Lincoln down by two at 7-5.
 


Ebelherr knotted the game with a drive to the basket to start the second quarter, but again the Railers failed to protect the lane and easy inside shots from Sherman and Marc Leonard grew the lead back to four. Cook hit the first of his, and the team’s, threes on the night, but the patient offense of Deerfield found Nicholas Zwart for another easy basket. Hopp scored Lincoln’s last points of the first half, but the Warriors would not be denied as another score sent the Railers into the locker room down 15-12.

The first half was played with no energy on the floor or in the crowd. “The team seemed as though they were waiting for the crowd to get into the game and I had to remind them you are the ones that are out there and they are waiting for a reason,” Alexander said.

It looked as though the second half was going to get off to a better start when Cook hit a three from near the sideline. Unfortunately, he was ruled to have stepped out before firing the shot. A Deerfield turnover was followed by another Lincoln misstep which the Warriors capitalized on with another three from Baum, Deerfield’s leader on the night with ten. Hopp drove to the basket and scored before Sherman laid one of the glass for more inside points and the Deerfield lead was back to six at 20-14.

Hopp continued his action to the basket, scoring a goal and completing a three point play to cut the deficit in half. With Lincoln down 22-17, scored the game’s next four on a basket by Cook and a steal and layup by Ebelherr. After Cook missed a chance to give the Railers the lead by missing two free throws, Samuel Kuznetsky stretched the advantage back to four with a three pointer. It was Hopp again connecting from 17 feet and when Block hit his only other basket on the night on a drive, Lincoln had tied the game for the first time since being even at seven.

Starting the fourth quarter, Hopp gave the Railers their first lead of the night with a drive to the basket. However, as quickly as Lincoln took the lead, Kuznetsky seized the lead back with another three pointer. As time started to become an issue, Lincoln was looking for something to spark the team. That spark was the number three.

When Cook, who wears number three, drained a three-pointer with three minutes to go, Lincoln took the lead back at 30-28. A free throw from Sherman brought the game back to a one-point affair. The critical point of the game would happen next and, had the game not gone the Railers’ way, might have been pointed to as the turning point.

 

[to top of second column]

With 1:26 left in the game, Cook was trapped near the sideline. As the double team tried to grab the ball away from him, a timeout was called by the Lincoln bench. As that was happening, Deerfield’s defenders were able to reach in and get a held ball call. The official near the bench did not allow the timeout, giving the call to the official with the held ball and the alternating possession going to Deerfield. To say the Lincoln coach staff was upset would be an understatement. That frustration would only grow as Deerfield would come down see Zwart score on a lay-in to give the Warriors the lead at 31-30. After the Railers inbounded the ball, a whistle signaled that a timeout had been given to Deerfield, seemingly after Lincoln had gotten the ball inbounds. It was a chaotic 19 seconds that could have been the difference.

After the timeout, Lincoln ran the clock down until Cook was able to get fouled with 53.7 seconds to go. Cook hit both free throws to put Lincoln back up 32-31. Deerfield ran the clock down to fire a three from the right corner but the miss was grabbed by Cook who sank two more free throws with 14.8 seconds remaining. Lincoln led by three, giving Deerfield (15-10) a chance. After advancing the ball to half court and taking a timeout with 12 seconds left, Deerfield’s final attempt from three was missed but the Warriors were all over the offensive boards, getting at least three more attempts at the basket in the lane. The final rebound by Zwart was put in off the glass, but as time expired.

Game over. Game survived.

“You have to be mentally prepared every night and tonight we were not,” Alexander said. “ We hesitated, just weren’t ready. I’m the first to give credit to the players when they play well, but I’m also going to be honest with how they are playing as well.”

Only four players scored for Lincoln as they grabbed the 32nd 20-win season in school history, 18 of those under Coach Alexander. Hopp led with 13 points with Cook scoring 12. Ebelherr added five with Block held to just four, but did lead with six rebounds. On the night, Lincoln hit only 39 percent of their shots, and the three point shooting for last night evened out on Saturday night. Following the 81 percent from Friday night, the Railers hit only 13 percent against Deerfield.

Lincoln will only have one game next week as SHG comes to town on Friday the 13th. The Railers will look to remain no worse than tied for the conference lead as the Cyclones have been playing better and would like nothing else than to put a speed bump in front of the Railers’ conference title hopes. Game time for the varsity is scheduled for 7:30.
 



LCHS 5-7-13-9 34
DEERFIELD 7-8-10-8 33

LINCOLN (34)

Hopp 6-9 1-1 13, Cook 3-9 4-6 12, Ebelherr 2-2 1-2 5, Block 2-10 0-0 4, Perry 0-1 0-0 0, Bowers 0-1 0-0 0, Aeilts 0-1 0-0 0, TEAM 1333 6-9 34. 3pt FG 2-15 (Cook 2-8, Perry 0-1, Hopp 0-1, Aeilts 0-1, Block 0-4). Rebounds 20, Assists 4, Turnovers 12.

DEERFIELD (33)

Baum 10, Sherman 9, Zwart 6, Kuznetsky 6, Leonard 2. TEAM 14-33 1-3 33. 3pt FG 4-14 (Baum 2, Kuznetsky 2). Rebounds 25, Assists, 9, Turnovers 15.

[Jeff Benjamin]

Back to top