LINCOLN 39, MAHOMET-SEYMOUR 34

[November 28, 2016]  On Friday night at Roy S. Anderson Gymnasium, it was a battle of trends. On the one side, since 1999, the Lincoln Railers were 17-2 on Friday nights during the Eaton Electrical Round Robin Tournament. In the other corner, since their inclusion in the tournament, Mahomet-Seymour had not been defeated by the Railers. Something had to give.

T.G.I.F.

The Railers continued their Friday dominance by knocking off a hard-fighting Bulldog squad 39-34 to remain the lone undefeated team in this year’s tourney. Junior Isaiah Bowers scored a game-high 22 points, including 16 in the first half, but was forced to watch his teammates from the bench during the third quarter due to foul trouble.

The Bulldogs went on a 16-9 run in the second half to tie the game, but could never take the lead although they had a few chances. Once Blake Lester hit a three to even the contest with 1:59 left, it was all Railers from the free throw line, hitting five of six to secure the win. For a team that was averaging 72 points a game coming into the night, being held to less than half that is a credit to the Lincoln defense.

“I think the team is playing super hard, and our defense is really impressive so far,” Lincoln coach Neil Alexander beamed after the game. “We watched the tape from last year and we really didn’t force them into anything. But tonight, we made them uncomfortable and that showed.” The Railers did a great job in shutting down Mahomet’s top two scorers in Cory Noe and Noah Benedict. Noe came in averaging over 25 a game in the tourney, but could get nothing going against the Lincoln D as he was held to just 8 points, while Benedict could only muster seven.

The team also had to deal with life in the third quarter without Bowers. With 6:16 left in the third, the junior picked up his third foul on a questionable charging foul. When he sat down, Lincoln was up seven. By the time he returned at the beginning of the fourth, it was down to a one point game.

The marquee may have read Lincoln versus Mahomet-Seymour, but it could have easily been dubbed the Isaiah Bowers show. Bowers got the Railers off to an early 8-0 lead including a pair of threes. Lester finally got the high-powered offense on the board when he hit a three with 3:00 to go and just 20 seconds later Bradley Hamilton cut the game to 8-5. Bowers hit another of his high arcing threes to push the Lincoln lead back to six at 11-5.

The nice thing about the first quarter Bowers had was sitting back and enjoying the ability to take over a game. However, when the shots stop falling, someone else has to step up and another Railer did to start the second quarter when Ben Grunder hit a floater in the lane. Bowers and Grunder continued their scoring with another from long range by Bowers and a pair of free throws from Grunder. After a steal and tip away by Titus Cannon, Bowers scored on another layup to push the advantage to 20-12.

The foul trouble started mounting with 3:21 left in the half as Bowers picked up his second foul. The experienced Bowers was able to play the rest of the half without picking up his third. A drive by Grunder got the lead back to eight only to have the Bulldogs score the final four of the half, leaving the Railers margin at intermission at only four. The Railers had an opportunity to score but were unable to execute their called set. Lincoln went through a span of three turnovers on four possessions, all unforced errors on passes that had a better chance of being caught by the folks at the scorer’s bench.

Lincoln caught a break in the early stages of the third when Bryson Kirby missed on a deep three, but was fouled. The senior stepped up and made all three and Lincoln’s lead grew to seven. But, the mood of the game changed moments later when Bowers headed to the Railer bench with his third foul. It’s no surprise that the offense looked out of sorts without Bowers on the floor. It may take this team a while to figure out who the go to guy will be when it can’t be Bowers. The only scoring by the Railers for the rest of the quarter was a layup by Cannon on a play set up for the point guard.

Mahomet-Seymour took advantage of the foul trouble with Noe and Lester hitting threes around Cannon’s drive. After a turnover by Grunder, a lay-in by Benedict brought the lead down to one and the Railers would start the fourth up only 27-26.

During the first two games, the Railer defense has been pounded for 18 and 19 points respectively in the fourth quarter. Lincoln tallied the first scoring as Kirby followed a shot fake and dribble with a three pointer to move the lead back to four. Benedict answered back to cut the lead back to one. The most important play that went unnoticed followed as Mahomet had a wide open layup. As Benedict tried to hand the ball to a teammate, Ryan Harrison fumbled under the basket and was forced to take the dribble down the baseline. A score would have given the Bulldogs their first lead and possibly changed the complexion of the game. However, the mishandle resulted in a missed shot. On the trip downcourt, Grunder drove to the basket and was fouled.

After missing the free throw, the next trip saw Bowers hit a pair of free throws to move the game to 34-29. A couple of calls did not set well with Railer Nation. Bowers was whistled for traveling on what seemed to be the slightest movement of his pivot foot. What made that call harder to take was the inbounds play to Noe, who appeared to take at least two, and maybe three, steps prior to his first dribble. While the crowd was dumbfounded by the lack of a call, Noe proceeded to drive the lane and drop a layup. As the clock ticked under two minutes, Lester, who hit the first field goal of the night for the Bulldogs, drained the last one of the night, trying the game at 34.

Monday night free throws were a topic of discussion with the Railers going only 14 of 26. Last night, it was free throws again, but this time finishing 12 of 14 including 5 of 6 in the final 1:14 to seal the win. The clinching free throws, fittingly, came from Bowers, hitting a pair with 1.6 seconds left in the game.

Three games in, Bowers has led the way each night, hitting for 22 on Friday. Grunder scored nine with Kirby adding six and Cannon tallying two.
As hard as the Railers have played this week, more may be asked of them on Saturday with two games scheduled. The first, set for 1:00 against Bartonville Limestone and the nightcap ready to tip at 8:00 versus Danville. Coach Alexander knows what may be in store saying “we will find out what we’re made of tomorrow.”

The other scores from Friday night: Cahokia beat Centennial 61-58 and Danville crushed Limestone 74-43. Heading into Saturday, the standings look this way: Lincoln 3-0, Cahokia 2-1, Danville 2-1, Mahomet-Seymour 2-1, Centennial 0-3, Limestone 0-3.

LINCOLN (39)

Bowers 6 6-6 22, Grunder 3 3-5 9, Kirby 1 3-3 6, Cannon 1 0-0 2, Hullinger 0 0-0 0, Bacon 0 0-0 0, Sloan 0 0-0 0, Morris 0 0-0 0. TEAM 11 12-14 39. 3pt FG - 5 (Bowers 4, Kirby).

MAHOMET-SEYMOUR (34)

Lester 11, Noe 8, Benedict 7, Anderson 4, Hamilton 2, Harrison 2. TEAM 12 5-5 34. 3pt FG – 5 (Lester 3, Noe, Benedict).

LCHS 11-11-5-12 39
M-SEYMOUR 8-10-8-8 34

[Jeff Benjamin]