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 For the second night in a row, sophomore Isaiah Bowers set a season
high. After scoring 20 on Friday night, he led the Railers with 22
against the Chargers. Bowers has been on a good run as of late,
averaging 17 points over the last six games.
Facing non-familiar opponents allows the Railers to use some plays
that are normally ineffective against conference foes, teams that
see Lincoln year in and year out. One of those plays, the alley oop
lob, got the scoring started when Aron Hopp scored off a lob pass
from KJ Fry. After a Bowers free throw, he hit the first of his
three treys on the night to jump the Railers to a 6-0 lead. The
Chargers bounced back quickly as sophomore Kyle Czerak hit two
three-pointers to tie the game at six. After the teams traded
baskets, Fry hit from long range to put Lincoln up 11-8. Undeterred
by the Lincoln quick start, Aurora got scores from Czerak and Evan
Shuetz to give them their first, and only, lead of the evening at
12-11.
Lincoln (13-10) enjoyed the lead going to the second quarter as
Bowers scored off an offensive rebound to make it 13-12. Since it
worked so well for the first score of the game, the Railers went
back to the well with the alley oop lob for the initial score of the
second as Bowers scored on a lay-in on the pass from Bryson Kirby.
The Chargers used a three from their leading scorer Brett Czerak to
tie the game at 15. He came in fresh off scoring his 1,000th career
point last week, but he did not get many open looks against the
Railer defense on Saturday. Bowers moved to the top of the key for
another three, en route to a ten point period. A basket from Hopp
stretched the Lincoln lead to five.
Brett Czerak hit another three to pull the Chargers within two and
it felt as though their leading scorer was about to get on a roll.
Bowers made the score 23-18 with another three before one of the key
plays of the game happened. As Chargers’ point guard Donovan Reid
was attempting to free himself from a trap, he was hit in the face
by an inadvertent elbow from one of the Railer defenders. He
immediately reached for his face, but play continued until the
officials stopped play due to blood on Reid and the court. After a
brief delay for clean up, Reid was being attended to by the trainer
while the Chargers had to rely on a back up at point guard. Any time
a team loses the services of a point guard, there is always the
chance the team will not function as well offensively. That’s what
happened to Aurora.
After a turnover, Fry missed a pair of shots, one on an offensive
rebound, but was rewarded for his board work by getting open on the
same possession and hitting a three from the left corner. It was
part of a 12-0 run to end the first half that allowed the Railers to
expand their two point lead to a 14 point advantage at 32-18. During
the stretch, the Chargers were not able to find a good offensive
rhythm. Before the injury, Brett Czerak was starting to find his
shooting touch but with Reid on the bench, Czerak was forced to work
harder for his shot opportunities and the Railer defense would not
allow that.
The Lincoln run continued at the start of the second half on a pass
from Ben Grunder to Bowers and another lob play from Aeilts to Hopp.
Up 36-18, Lincoln saw Zack Smith end the scoring drought for the
Chargers at the 5:55 mark. After Grunder completed a three-point
play, Lincoln was ahead 42-23. The rest of the quarter belonged to
Fry who hit three threes to push his season total of makes from
behind the arc to 52 and put the Railers up by 20 at 48-28. Fry
finished the night with 15 points.
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On Friday night, Lincoln coach Neil Alexander was concerned about
the decision making in the MacArthur game and the chance his Railers
would come out flat on Saturday night. “Our decision making tonight
was better, making the right pass,” Alexander said, “but there are
some things we still need to work on. We did not come out flat which
was good for us.”
A play I am sure did not bring a smile to Coach Alexander’s face
started the fourth quarter scoring as Kyle Czerak was fouled while
making a three pointer. His free throw completed the four point play
and quickly cut the lead to 16. A spin move by Hopp on the baseline
that left his defender twisted like a pretzel allowed the senior to
drain a jumper from the baseline. After the final basket of the
night by Brett Czerak pulled Aurora (12-9) to within 50-34, the
Railers put on a game finishing run of 15-3 to put a wrap on the
night. Kirby was able to hit a three during the run, while David
Biggs came in off the bench and tallied Lincoln’s last six points to
put away the 65-47 victory.
“It was good to play a style we haven’t seen in a while,” Alexander
said. “We haven’t played against a zone in a while. But this team
has to play 32 minutes, not 28, or 26, or even down to 20. We need a
full game.”
Three Railers hit double figures with Bowers leading with 22 and Fry
adding 15. Hopp added 14 with Biggs scoring six, Grunder putting in
five, and Kirby scoring three.
The Railers are back in action twice next weekend starting with a
conference game at SHG on Friday night. The varsity is set to
tip-off at 7:30 while the sophomores, 70-30 winners on Saturday
night, get the evening started at 6:00pm. The Railers were 67-40
winners over SHG on December 18 when Hopp and Aeilts combined for 35
points.
A couple of other notes. Congratulations to Carroll Catholic as they
continue on in state tournament play. The Crusaders were 47-40
winners on Saturday night and will play for the state championship
on Thursday night. Game time is 7:30 and is at East Peoria Junior
High School.
Also, on February 20, the Railers will be traveling to play Joliet
Central. An effort is being made to put together a charter bus for
fans to take up to the game. The cost is reportedly $25 and the
seating is limited to 55, first come, first serve. If you have any
questions, contact Michelle Ryan who is leading the charter bus
effort.
LINCOLN (65)
Bowers 7 5-8 22, Fry 5 0-0 15, Hopp 6 2-2 14, Biggs 2 2-2 6, Grunder
1 3-3 5, Kirby 1 0-0 3, Aeilts 0 0-0 0, O’Donoghue 0 0-0 0,
Hullinger 0 0-0 0, Bacon 0 0-0 0, Cannon 0 0-0 0, Morris 0 0-0 0,
Sloan 0 0-0 0. TEAM 22 12-15 65. 3pt FG 9 (Fry 5, Bowers 3, Kirby).
AURORA CENTRAL CATHOLIC (37)
B.Czerak 13, K.Czerak 12, Faltz 5, Shuetz 3, Smith 2, Bush 2. TEAM
14 2-3 37. 3pt FG 7 (K.Czerak 3, B.Czerak 3, Faltz).
LCHS 13-19-16-17 65
AURORA CC 12-6-10-9 37
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