Railers defeat Teutopolis 43-37 in home opener
Hullinger leads Lincoln with 22 points

[February 06, 2021]  Friday night at Roy S. Anderson Gymnasium was a battle between two of the state’s winningest programs in history. Both Lincoln and Teutopolis each have over 1,800 wins to their credit. The Wooden Shoes joined the Apollo Conference for the 2020-21 school year making this matchup between the two historic teams possible on Friday night in Lincoln.

With the visitors taking the ball out of bounds at half-court to start the game, Evan Addis was quick to put the Wooden Shoes on the board with a three.

Following a couple Lincoln misses, Teutopolis took advantage and this time it was Evan Wermert with a bucket and the 5-0 lead belonged to the Wooden Shoes.

Lincoln would not get on the board until a couple free throws by Dylan Singleton fell through the net with 5:22 showing on the clock.

Meanwhile the Wooden Shoes kept stretching the lead. Addis connected for another three and seconds later he turned around to drop in two points and just like that Teutopolis was on top 10-2.

Leave it to Landon Hullinger to get some noise out of the slim crowd. The 6’5 senior, who will undoubtedly put up big numbers this season, sank a three at the 3:45 mark and allowed Lincoln to cut the lead in half, 10-5 now the score.

Teutopolis’ lineup is full of shooters and it was Max Niebrugge tossing in a three on the next Wooden Shoes possession.

Junior Brody Whiteman answered that with a three himself from the corner in front of the Wooden Shoes bench. Lincoln was hustling to close that gap, 13-8 now the score.

Speaking of hustle, a quick steal by Dylan Singleton and he was off and running towards the basket. Singleton would spin around in the lane and drop in a bucket good for two points with just under a minute left in the first quarter.

After the Railers defense forced a turnover, Hullinger would get the crowd fired up again. This time the senior dribbled just inside the three-point line and with his jump shot looking perfect, the ball fell through, nothing but net. The buzzer quickly sounded and the Railers ran to the bench right back in the game, trailing just 13-12.

Second quarter

Singleton and Hullinger were quick to get the offense going in the second quarter for Lincoln. Singleton’s basket gave Lincoln their first lead of the game 14-13. Hullinger extended the lead with a three. The Railers defense continued to shut out Teutopolis during this stretch.

With Singleton able to fetch a rebound and run the length of the court, he would lay it in for a 19-13 Lincoln lead. That’s the kind of play Railer fans are used to.

Kayden Althoff would cut the lead down to 19-15 with a basket for Teutopolis. The rest of the quarter would be fairly quiet offensively. Free throws by Hullinger in fact would be it. The Railers were able to hold a 22-15 edge at halftime.

Third quarter

The third quarter began from the land of the three. First, it was Adam Grunder adding to Lincoln’s lead from beyond the arc. Then it was Max Niebrugge and Evan Wermert with back-to-back threes quickly for the Wooden Shoes. Lincoln was still on top 25-21.

The quarter would be a low scoring affair for both teams, and after three, Lincoln had the 28-24 advantage.

Fourth quarter

Moving onto the fourth quarter, it was Wermert starting things off with a three and Lincoln was holding on by a shoestring, 28-27 the score. Leave it to Hullinger and Singleton to come up with something to catch the Wooden Shoes off guard.

How about an alley-oop from the 6’5 guy to the 5’11 guy? Hullinger tossed the ball to a leaping Singleton under the basket and he rarely misses from inside the paint. He didn’t miss a beat or the basket on this play. Lincoln was up 30-27.

Twenty-five seconds later, Lincoln had possession again and Hullinger would pull down an offensive rebound and drop it back in for two points. Lincoln’s lead was 32-27.

The next five field goals combined by both teams would be three-pointers, with Teutopolis holding a 3-2 edge, but it didn’t matter in the end. The closest Teutopolis got was 32-31 around the four-minute mark and that was after a three by Jordan Hardiek and a free throw by Matthew Deters.

Lincoln’s duo of Hullinger and Singleton would quiet the Wooden Shoes after back-to-back threes in less than a minute. First it was Hullinger, then it was Singleton. Lincoln’s lead grew to 38-31.

But with 1:34 left to play in the game, Brendan Niebrugge hit his only bucket of the game and it was a three. Over the course of the next minute, there was a turnover by Lincoln and some missed shots by Teutopolis.

There were no points put on the board until Hullinger would step to the free throw line with 40.0 seconds left and coming up clutch in the situation, he would go a perfect 2-for-2 and give Lincoln a tiny bit of breathing room with the score 40-34.

Singleton also got a turn at the free throw down the stretch and after making one shot, the Lincoln lead was 41-34 with 22.2 seconds left to play.

Don’t count the “Shoes” out. A long bank shot by Addis from beyond the three-point line kept things intense and made the score 41-37 with 13.5 seconds left to play.

The Wooden Shoes quickly fouled Hullinger following the timeout. Hullinger was comfortable going to the line and after he bounced in the first bucket, he swished the second one and that was all Lincoln needed. A 43-37 lead was more than secure at this stage in the game.

With the clock running down, Teutopolis threw up a miss and Lincoln had the 43-37 win in the books. It was a hard-fought battle by two tough teams on a Friday night. And long overdue.

Landon Hullinger led all scorers with 22 points. Dylan Singleton tossed in 14 points for the Railers.

Lincoln improves to 2-0 on the season.

The Wooden Shoes were led by Evan Addis with 11 points and Evan Wermert was a close second in the scoring column with 10 points.

In the JV game, Teutopolis crushed Lincoln 81-33.

The Wooden Shoes ran out to a 23-7 first quarter lead and by the half it was 44-12. The Wooden Shoes just kept bringing shooters into the game and at the end of the third quarter they were cruising 58-27 over Lincoln. With the final score 81-33, the Wooden Shoes had 11 players reach the scoring column against Lincoln.

Payton Cook would lead the Railers with 11 points.

Sam Bushur led Teutopolis with 14 points.

Lincoln will play at Springfield Lanphier today. The JV contest is scheduled for 1 p.m. The Varsity contest is scheduled for 2:30 p.m.


Varsity scoring

Lincoln 43

Hullinger 22
Singleton 14
Whiteman 3
Grunder 3
Klopp 1

Teutopolis 37

Addis 11
Wermert 10
M. Niebrugge 6
Hardiek 4
B. Niebrugge 3
K. Althoff 2
Deters 1


JV scoring

Lincoln 33

Cook 11
Sasse 6
Bivin 5
Nelson 3
Schmidt 3
Schilling 3
Gowin 2

Teutopolis 81

Bushur 14
Bloemer 11
Roepke 11
J. Niebrugge 11
Siemer 7
Pruemer 7
B. Niebrugge 5
M. Althoff 5
Ruholl 5
K. Althoff 3
Konkel 2

[Teena Lowery]