Railers rally to overcome 13-point
deficit, beat Pontiac 48-46
[December 26, 2025]
PONTIAC – The Railer basketball team overcame a 13-point
fourth-quarter deficit and rallied to beat previously-unbeaten
Pontiac, 48-46.
“I’m pretty proud of the kids,” Lincoln coach Neil Alexander said
after the game. “They really worked hard the last four or five
minutes.”
Alexander knew entering the contest that Pontiac would give Lincoln
a competitive game. The Indians entered the contest sporting an 8-0
record, averaging 59 points per game offensively and beating
opponents by just over 14 points per game.
“They’ve got great shooters,” Alexander said of Pontiac. “They’re a
2A school, and they’re going to be a tough out for somebody. They’re
very physical. They’re a team that could really be successful come
March.”
Brody Tungate
The Indians showed early on they would be a tough opponent. Brody
Tungate hit the first basket of the game to give Lincoln an early
2-0 lead, but PTHS responded with a 6-0 run. Pontiac outscored
Lincoln 15-10 in the first quarter. Tungate scored four points for
the Railers in the frame, and Karson Komnick and Tate Aue added
three points each.
The teams played an even second period, with each squad scoring 16
points in the stanza as Pontiac held a 31-26 lead at intermission.
Tungate and Aue each had six points for Lincoln while Breon McKinnie
and Hunter Clark each scored two points for the Railers.
Statistically, in the first half, the difference between the teams’
scoring numbers was not large. Pontiac made 10 of 19 shots from the
field, and while the Railers actually made more field goals and had
a better field goal percentage in the half (55 percent to 52.6 for
Pontiac), the Indians bested Lincoln from beyond the arc. PTHS hit
seven of 13 on three-point attempts while the Railers went four for
eight on treys in the half. Pontiac also made four of six free throw
attempts in the first two quarters while LCHS had no free throw
attempts in the half.
Pontiac extended its lead when Evan Wolf hit a three pointer, but
Lincoln answered two possessions later
when Aue hit a trey for LCHS. But the Indians seemed a step quicker
than the Railers, as Pontiac went on to outscore Lincoln 10-5 in the
third period and hold a double-digit advantage heading into the
final period, 41-31.
Aden Brummel completed a conventional three-point play for the
Indians to open the fourth-quarter scoring and extend the Pontiac
lead to 44-31, the largest of the game.
Bryce Vlahovich
Then in the fourth quarter, the Railers turned up the defensive
pressure, and that seemed to rattle Pontiac’s approach on offense a
bit to open the door for Lincoln’s comeback. Tungate hit a free
throw, then Bryce Vlahovich made a three-pointer to trim the deficit
to single digits at 44-35.
Amazin King hit a field goal for Pontiac to widen the lead to 46-35,
then Tungate got the next four Railer points, hitting four straight
free throw attempts to pull the Railers to within seven points at
46-39. Vlahovich then hit a pair of free throws to cut Pontiac’s
lead to five with under three minutes remaining.
Komnick, Lincoln’s leading scorer on the season, finished the game
with only three points, but he continued to work hard and contribute
in other areas. He registered steals on the next two Pontiac
possessions, but the Railers could not convert those opportunities
into points. Following another Pontiac turnover, Aue hit his fifth
three-pointer of the game to cut the deficit to two points, 46-44.
Following a Pontiac timeout, the Indians passed the ball inbounds,
and the ball was returned to the inbound passer. He then attempted a
bounce pass which may have been a bit lackadaisical but certainly
was within reach of Tungate at the point of the Railers’ 1-2-2
press. The Railer senior saw the opportunity to snag the ball, which
he did almost directly under the basket, and converted it into a
layup to bring Lincoln all the way back from its earlier 13-point
deficit and knot the score at 46-46 with about one minute remaining.
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Head Coach Neil Alexander
Pontiac inbounded the ball again, this time successfully advancing
it past midcourt. But Amazin King had trouble receiving a pass up
top on the Pontiac offense, and Aue swooped in to steal the ball for
Lincoln.
Following a Railer timeout, Lincoln inbounded the ball with 1:09
remaining in the game. The team worked the ball around the perimeter
to eat up some time, but with a shot clock being used in the game,
LCHS could not try to hold the ball the rest of the game without
taking a shot. Eventually the ball was in the hands of Tungate near
top of the key. As time on the shot clock was winding down, the
Railer senior took a couple dribbles to his right, reversed the ball
to his left hand with a between-the-legs dribble, then advanced it
to the free throw line, where he let loose with a floating jumper.
The ball arched toward the rim, tickling the twine of the net as the
shot clock expired. Lincoln led 48-46, as the Railers took their
first lead since leading 10-9 near the midway point of the first
quarter.
Pontiac advanced the ball past midcourt before calling a timeout
with 11.6 seconds remaining. After inbounding the ball and working
it around the perimeter briefly, King took a shot for Pontiac that
caromed off the back of the rim. The rebound was briefly grabbed by
Brummel for Pontiac, but he appeared to lose control of the ball as
the ball bounced toward the sideline. The final buzzer sounded, and
the Railers escaped with a 48-46 victory.
“I don’t know, maybe we should’ve changed our defense a little bit
to come out and pressure them more,” Alexander said after the game.
“Because they were comfortable the first three and a half quarters
standing and shooting.”
“Not only did they hit threes, but they beat the snot out of us on
the boards. When they missed their threes, they were getting the
ball back.”
After Pontiac shot 52.6 percent in the first half, the Railer
defense held PTHS to 30 percent shooting after intermission. Most
notably, Lincoln held the host school to one-of-eight shooting (12.5
percent) on three-pointers in the second half after Pontiac hit 53.8
percent (seven of 13) treys in the first half.
Tate Aue
Tungate led Lincoln with 21 points and Aue added 15 on five
three-pointers. Komnick, Lincoln’s leading scorer for the season,
only tallied three points for Lincoln, but Coach Alexander pointed
out after the game that high point totals aren’t the only way
players can help their team and have a good game individually.
“There’s more to the game than scoring, and he gives us so much
more,” Alexander said of Komnick. “He got two or three big rebounds
down there, I think he came up with two or three steals and the ball
was in his hands.
“Kids and fans put so much on scoring where, if they score 20, they
think they had a good game, and that’s not always the case. He had
three points and he had a really, really good game.”
The victory was the fifth consecutive win for the Railers, whose
record moves to 9-2 on the season. Pontiac falls to 8-1.
Next up for Lincoln is the Prairie Farms Holiday Classic at
Collinsville High School. The Railers play the first of their four
games in the tournament on Saturday at 7:30 PM against Granite City.
Lincoln’s next game will take place on Sunday at 2:30 PM against a
yet-to-be-determined opponent. Lincoln will then have one more game
Sunday before concluding play in the tournament with a game on
Monday.
[Loyd Kirby]
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