Railers beat Rochester 40-32 for third straight win

 

[December 18, 2023]  Rochester – The Railer boys basketball team continued with its relentless defense in powering Lincoln to a 40-32 Central State 8 victory over Rochester.

The win is Lincoln’s third in a row; the Railers have now won six of their last seven games.

The game had the appearance of a defensive battle from the outset, with both teams scoreless through the first four minutes until Rochester senior Canon Bruce hit a 3-pointer. Lincoln got 7 points in the stanza on a Trey Schilling 3-pointer along with field goals by Gabe Smith and Frank Sanders. Eli Cox hit a field goal for the Rockets and Bruce closed the scoring in the period with another 3-pointer to give Rochester an 8-7 lead.

Bruce opened the second quarter with another 3-pointer, but the Railers scored the next 11 points to take an 18-11 lead. Aidan Gowin shined as he scored 7 points during the run while playing tough defense, and Drew Hayes added 4. The Rockets scored the final 5 points of the quarter—a 3-pointer by Jack Melton and another field goal by Bruce—to cut the Lincoln lead to 18-16 at halftime.

Cox hit the first field goal for Rochester in the second half to knot the score at 18-18 before the lead changed three times with each following score. Smith hit a field goal to put Lincoln up 20-18 before Bruce drained another 3-pointer to give Rochester a 21-20 advantage. Gowin answered with a 3-point shot for Lincoln to give the Railers a 23-21 lead they would not relinquish. Lincoln led 28-24 at the conclusion of the third quarter and outscored Rochester 12-8 in the final period for a 40-32 final margin of victory.

Coach Neil Alexander

Although the Lincoln lead ballooned to 10 points in the fourth quarter, head coach Neil Alexander knew the youthful Rochester squad would not just give up.

“You knew coming down here this isn’t an easy place to play,” he said. “They [the Rockets] play really hard. They’ve got a lot of young kids.”

Aidan Gowin

Lincoln was led in scoring by Gowin with 11 points off the bench. In addition to putting points on the board, Gowin also played the point in the Railer 1-2-2 pressure defense much of the night.

“He played really well,” Alexander said. “It’s really an issue…you take him off the wing with his size and he’s rebounding back side. That might be something where we have Aidan play in the front court, and then when we get in backcourt, switch it around so we don’t have Ki’on [Carson] rebounding on that back side.”

Karson Komnick

Karson Komnick added 8 for the Railers and Hayes scored 6. Smith, and Carson and Frank Sanders each scored 4 points and Schilling contributed 3.

Bruce led all scorers with 21 points for Rochester.
 

“You’ve definitely got to find him and keep track of him,” Alexander said. “Bruce is a nice shooter.”

Not only was Alexander pleased to escape with a victory, but he added that the win should have implications down the road for the Railers as discussions begin about postseason seedings.

“The kids fought,” he said. “I thought we had opportunities to put it away but we didn’t. We got out of here with two things: a Central State 8 win, and a subsectional win, too.”

Lincoln’s next game is Friday, Dec. 22 as the Railers host Washington in a non-conference contest starting at 7 PM. That game will be Lincoln’s last one until the Railers open play Dec. 27 in the Collinsville Holiday Tournament.

“It gives us not such a long break from our last game until the tournament,” Alexander said of the Washington game, “so hopefully it will help us get better.”

[Loyd Kirby]