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 Over the past three games, Hopp had been held to a combined four
field goals. On Tuesday night, there seemed to be a definite game
plan to get the ball to Hopp in the lane and let him work. Hopp
scored the first points of the night only to have Mt. Zion’s Charles
Kuhle hit from long distance, something the Braves succeeded at much
of the first three quarters. It was the only lead of the night for
Mt. Zion as another basket from Hopp was followed by two three
pointers from Jordan Perry. When Gavin Block, who finished with 14,
converted on an offensive rebound, Lincoln had built their lead to
12-3.
After a conventional three point play by Payton Grinestaff, Block
split a pair of free throws to give the Railers a 13-6 advantage
after one quarter.
Mt. Zion’s AJ Davis tried to keep his team in the game by draining
two threes to pull the Braves to within one at 13-12. Block stepped
to the line to hit all three free throws after being fouled behind
the arch, the first of three times on the night a Railer was fouled
shooting a three. Another three from Mt. Zion closed the gap to one,
but a three from Will Cook pushed the lead back to four and Perry’s
pass to Block on the alley-oop conversion put the Railers up 21-15.
 Free throws finished out the half for Lincoln as Hopp made one of
two and Payton Ebelherr hit all three shots to give Lincoln a 25-17
halftime spread. It was a good sight as halftime leads have not been
in high supply lately. Before Tuesday, Lincoln (25-6) had trailed at
the half in the four of the previous five games.
Jordan Horath got the second half started in good fashion for the
home team but that just allowed Lincoln to begin an 11-2 run. Hopp
made a pair of free throws and scored on an inside move to make it
29-20. For the Railers, it was the recipe all night. Get the ball to
Hopp near the free throw line, let him drive to the basket and score
or find an open teammate once the defense collapsed on him. Mt. Zion
may have underestimated Hopp’s quickness and it was only one step he
needed to get to the rim.
Block was fouled again shooting a three and converted two of the
free throws. A bucket by Grinestaff slowed the run, but only
briefly. Cook hit his second three and Hopp scored on a shot off the
glass from about 12 feet at a very difficult angle. Lincoln had
built its lead to 36-22 and things were looking good on the court
for the Railers, much better than last week.
Two scores from the Braves cut the game back to ten at 36-26, but
Ebelherr found Cook on a back door pass and layup and when Isaiah
Bowers found the lane wide open, the freshman took advantage and
scored on a layup to give the Railers a 40-29 lead. The Railers
ended the quarter on a high note with another score from Hopp on a
pass from Block while Ebelherr beat the third quarter clock with a
top of the key three to move the margin to 13 after three.
 Block scored the first points of the quarter for Lincoln off a lob
on an out of bounds play to stretch the lead to 47-35. Even though
Easter is about a month away, the Mt. Zion faces were probably
already tired of the Hopp, Hopp, Hopp they had seen and the junior
was not done. Scoring on lay-ins off passes from Block and Cook, and
then returning the favor by shoveling the ball to a wide open Block,
Lincoln had put the game away, now up 54-36.
It was fitting Hopp then scored Lincoln’s final points of the night
and as the horn sounded, Railer Nation took a deep breath and let it
out, enjoying the 19-point victory.
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Hopp’s 19 and Block’s 14 points led the way. Block also topped with
six rebounds and six assists, most going to Hopp. A good balanced
attack came with Ebelherr and Cook adding eight, with Perry scoring
six. Bowers finished the scoring with two.
The question now becomes were the past few games just a lull and the
Railers are now on the upswing, or was Tuesday night a rebound game
from a bad week? Whatever the answer, those in attendance were glad
to see snapshots of Railer basketball that had been missing. The
trick is to continue more of the same on Friday night against
Decatur MacArthur. The Railers have split with the Generals so far
this season, falling at home53-44 on January 24, but handing them a
defeat on their home floor just two weeks later 55-42. The
tiebreaker is the most important one. The winner goes on to the
Centennial sectional, while the loser packs away another season.
Game time is set for 7:00pm. It is a good idea to arrive as early as
possible as the Generals had a good contingent of fans and we know
Railer Nation travels well. Of course, add in the fact the Generals
and their fans may want a bit of payback for last year’s overtime
loss to Lincoln in the regional final, the closest game the Railers
had on their way to state.
LINCOLN (58)
Hopp 8-10 3-4 19, Block 4-7 6-8 14, Cook 3-7 0-0 8, Ebelherr 1-1 5-7
8, Perry 2-6 0-0 6, Bowers 1-4 0-0 2, Aeilts 0-0 0-0 0, Fry 0-0 0-0
0, Biggs 0-0 0-0 0, Kirby 0-0 0-0 0. TEAM 19-35 14-19 58. 3pt FG
5-15 (Cook 2-6, Perry 2-6, Ebelherr 1-1, Bowers 0-2). Rebound 19,
Assists 13, Turnovers 8.
MT ZION (37)
Grinestaff 10, Kuhle 10, Davis 6, Thacker 6, Smith 3, Horath 3. TEAM
14-33 2-3 38. 3pt FG 8-20 (Kuhle 2, Thacker 2, Davis 2, Smith,
Horath). Rebounds 19, Assists 3, Turnovers 15.
LCHS 13-12-20-12 57
Mt ZION 6-11-15-6 38
One additional note. I would like to apologize to the Railer fans
that could not make it to the game and were planning on listening to
the broadcast with our radio broadcast or over the internet. There
have been technical issues at Mt. Zion in the past and, on Tuesday
night, they reared their ugly heads. I hope you know we tried all
that we could to hook up but there was no cooperation. The game was
videotaped and will be available on our website. We will definitely
make every effort to secure a better broadcast location and bring
you what we hope will be another Railer victory on Friday night.
[Jeff Benjamin]
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