Cold fourth-quarter shooting dooms Railers as Lanphier defeats Lincoln 44-30

 

[January 18, 2025]  LINCOLN – If Railer head coach Neil Alexander ever decides to hang up his coaching whistle, he might find a lucrative career as a fortune teller.

Granted, the Railer head coach has seen a thing or two in compiling 965 career wins while coaching 1,400 games over his storied career. Even so, the words he spoke on January 14 immediately following his basketball team’s 47-32 loss at Springfield High turned out to be quite prophetic in reflecting on the Railers’ performance and looking ahead to his squad’s game against Lanphier three days later.

“It’s a struggle right now,” he said of his team’s recent offensive woes. “It [the game against Lanphier] will be a lot of the same. The only good thing is we’ll be at home Friday.”

Lincoln did indeed play Lanphier at home on Friday, and it turned out Coach Al’s prediction was nearly spot-on right down to the final score, as the Lions controlled the boards and took advantage of cold second-half shooting by the Railers in defeating Lincoln 44-30.

The Railers held a three-point lead after the first period and were tied 17-17 with Lanphier nearing the end of the first half before A'Jeont Lee hit a three-pointer for the Lions just before intermission to give Lanphier a 20-17 lead.

In the first half, Lincoln hit five of 12 field goals (42 percent), including three of six three-pointers. However, Lanphier had nine more shots than the Railers in the first half, due in large part to the Lions’ dominant 19-6 advantage on the boards. The Lions notched as many first-half offensive rebounds (six) as Lincoln had in total rebounds before intermission.

“When you’re playing a possession game—which is what we are right now because we can’t do much else—you have to take advantage,” Alexander said. “You have to make your layups, you have to make your free throws, you have to cover shooters, you can’t let them have open looks. We were tied there going down to the end of the first half; we gave up a three, and it just snowballed from there.”

Lincoln matched the Lanphier offense in the third quarter, with each team scoring nine points to make the score 29-26 heading into the final stanza. The fourth quarter again proved to be the Achilles’ heel for the Railsplitters. Lincoln was outscored 15-4 in the last period to give Lanphier a 44-30 Central State 8 win over Lincoln.

The Railsplitters hit just one of eight field goals in the final quarter and missed all their three three-point attempts in the period. But Lanphier—content to run out the clock by spreading their offense across the floor and waiting for high-percentage shots—went five of eight on field goals in the fourth quarter to overcome a less-than-stellar five-of-10 showing at the free throw line to secure the win.

Brody Tungate

Brody Tungate continued his solid performance this season in leading the Railers with 10 points. Karson Komnick added seven points, Gabe Smith and Brady Miller chipped in with five points each and Blake Horn added three points.

Shaunassey Hatchett led Lanphier with 24 points. Jaiquan Holman tallied 15 for the Lions. Lanphier moved to 12-7 overall and 2-4 in the conference.

The well-documented injuries to Railer players continue to plague Lincoln’s efforts, and the issues seem present themselves as more of the game goes by. While compiling a 10-7 overall record so far this season (2-4 in the CS8), LCHS has averaged 44.7 points per game while giving up 46.1 points per contest.

Head Coach Neil Alexander

In its last four games, Lincoln has scored an average of 35.5 points while giving up 43. In other words, the Railers are giving up three fewer points per game in their last four contests, but they are scoring almost nine points less per game over the same stretch.

In the last four games, the numbers seem to indicate Lincoln fares well in the first half before running out of gas later in the contest. In its last four contests, Lincoln has averaged the same amount of points (19.25) as its opponents in the first half. After intermission, however, the Railers are giving up 7.5 points more than they are scoring. LCHS has scored an average of 16.25 points in the second half of its last four games while opponents have tallied 23.75 points in the second half of those four contests.

Lincoln’s 30 points of offense against Lanphier was the team’s low mark for the season, eclipsing the 32-point performance the Railers had against Springfield High earlier this week.

Karson Komnick

While Komnick’s return to the lineup no doubt has given the Railsplitters a boost, it appears he is still working to fully get his legs under him and find his shooting touch. Both of those are completely understandable and to be expected after missing three weeks with a wrist injury on his dominant side and he is now trying to get back into game shape in midseason rather than having an extended time with no games to rehabilitate his injury. With no definite timetable for the returns of Drew Hayes and Frank Sanders, the Railers continue to often find themselves outsized and taking the brunt of it when teams rachet up their physical play against Lincoln.

But opponents are not going to feel sorry for the Railers and take it easy on Lincoln. More often than not, the Railsplitters have a target on their back as opposing teams look forward to the opportunity to compete against the storied program and the vaunted 1-2-2 ball press defense. Meanwhile, Alexander has been as much a juggler as a coach during this season with the injuries to his team, as he tries to mix and match players and compile different lineups to put the best squad on the court that gives the Railers a chance to be competitive.

“At this point, you don’t look at your record,” Alexander said of how he approaches putting his lineup together. “You look at your effort and what’s going on, how you’re doing, your shot selection, how you’re playing defense and how you’re rebounding. We’ll make sure those guys are on the floor.”

Things don’t get any easier for Lincoln, as the grind of the season really starts to hit and the team begins to play three games many weeks until the postseason. Up next for the Railers are the Quincy Blue Devils, currently the top-ranked team in the state in Class 4A. Lincoln travels to Quincy tonight for a 7 PM contest. Next week, Lincoln has a trio of home games as the Railsplitters face Bloomington on Tuesday in a 7 PM game, U-High on Friday in a 7 PM contest and Rock Island in a 6:30 PM game on Saturday.

[Loyd Kirby | WLCN 96.3]