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“As pleased as I was about our performance last night, tonight
was just as frustrating,” Coach Neil Alexander commented after his
team’s 20th win. “Unfortunately, we are playing just like we
practice. We’ll have a good practice and then one that is so-so.
Last night, we played really well and tonight we struggled.”
The Warriors did not come in to Roy S. Anderson and be intimidated.
As Coach Alexander mentioned “they were the better team tonight, we
just got lucky.” Both teams struggled to get on the board and it was
not until halfway through the first quarter when Deerfield’s Jordan
Sherman scored the game’s first points. Defensively, for most of the
night, the Railers allowed too much interior passing and open shots,
leading Deerfield to lead for much of the game.
Lincoln was able to tie the game on Aron Hopp’s first basket of the
night. The junior led the way with 13 points on the night. A three
from the Warriors’ Jordan Baum, again made possible by nicely
executed interior passing leading to Baum being open behind the arc
put Deerfield up three. The Railers stayed close as Gavin Block
drove the baseline for his only field goal of the first half.
Lincoln’s leading scorer tallied only four for the night with many
of his outside shot falling short. After another three from the
visitors, Payton Ebelherr split a pair of free throws as the first
quarter came to an end with Lincoln down by two at 7-5.
Ebelherr knotted the game with a drive to the basket to start the
second quarter, but again the Railers failed to protect the lane and
easy inside shots from Sherman and Marc Leonard grew the lead back
to four. Cook hit the first of his, and the team’s, threes on the
night, but the patient offense of Deerfield found Nicholas Zwart for
another easy basket. Hopp scored Lincoln’s last points of the first
half, but the Warriors would not be denied as another score sent the
Railers into the locker room down 15-12.
The first half was played with no energy on the floor or in the
crowd. “The team seemed as though they were waiting for the crowd to
get into the game and I had to remind them you are the ones that are
out there and they are waiting for a reason,” Alexander said.
It looked as though the second half was going to get off to a better
start when Cook hit a three from near the sideline. Unfortunately,
he was ruled to have stepped out before firing the shot. A Deerfield
turnover was followed by another Lincoln misstep which the Warriors
capitalized on with another three from Baum, Deerfield’s leader on
the night with ten. Hopp drove to the basket and scored before
Sherman laid one of the glass for more inside points and the
Deerfield lead was back to six at 20-14.
Hopp continued his action to the basket, scoring a goal and
completing a three point play to cut the deficit in half. With
Lincoln down 22-17, scored the game’s next four on a basket by Cook
and a steal and layup by Ebelherr. After Cook missed a chance to
give the Railers the lead by missing two free throws, Samuel
Kuznetsky stretched the advantage back to four with a three pointer.
It was Hopp again connecting from 17 feet and when Block hit his
only other basket on the night on a drive, Lincoln had tied the game
for the first time since being even at seven.
Starting the fourth quarter, Hopp gave the Railers their first lead
of the night with a drive to the basket. However, as quickly as
Lincoln took the lead, Kuznetsky seized the lead back with another
three pointer. As time started to become an issue, Lincoln was
looking for something to spark the team. That spark was the number
three.
When Cook, who wears number three, drained a three-pointer with
three minutes to go, Lincoln took the lead back at 30-28. A free
throw from Sherman brought the game back to a one-point affair. The
critical point of the game would happen next and, had the game not
gone the Railers’ way, might have been pointed to as the turning
point.
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With 1:26 left in the game, Cook was trapped near the sideline.
As the double team tried to grab the ball away from him, a timeout
was called by the Lincoln bench. As that was happening, Deerfield’s
defenders were able to reach in and get a held ball call. The
official near the bench did not allow the timeout, giving the call
to the official with the held ball and the alternating possession
going to Deerfield. To say the Lincoln coach staff was upset would
be an understatement. That frustration would only grow as Deerfield
would come down see Zwart score on a lay-in to give the Warriors the
lead at 31-30. After the Railers inbounded the ball, a whistle
signaled that a timeout had been given to Deerfield, seemingly after
Lincoln had gotten the ball inbounds. It was a chaotic 19 seconds
that could have been the difference. After the timeout, Lincoln
ran the clock down until Cook was able to get fouled with 53.7
seconds to go. Cook hit both free throws to put Lincoln back up
32-31. Deerfield ran the clock down to fire a three from the right
corner but the miss was grabbed by Cook who sank two more free
throws with 14.8 seconds remaining. Lincoln led by three, giving
Deerfield (15-10) a chance. After advancing the ball to half court
and taking a timeout with 12 seconds left, Deerfield’s final attempt
from three was missed but the Warriors were all over the offensive
boards, getting at least three more attempts at the basket in the
lane. The final rebound by Zwart was put in off the glass, but as
time expired.
Game over. Game survived.
“You have to be mentally prepared every night and tonight we were
not,” Alexander said. “ We hesitated, just weren’t ready. I’m the
first to give credit to the players when they play well, but I’m
also going to be honest with how they are playing as well.”
Only four players scored for Lincoln as they grabbed the 32nd 20-win
season in school history, 18 of those under Coach Alexander. Hopp
led with 13 points with Cook scoring 12. Ebelherr added five with
Block held to just four, but did lead with six rebounds. On the
night, Lincoln hit only 39 percent of their shots, and the three
point shooting for last night evened out on Saturday night.
Following the 81 percent from Friday night, the Railers hit only 13
percent against Deerfield.
Lincoln will only have one game next week as SHG comes to town on
Friday the 13th. The Railers will look to remain no worse than tied
for the conference lead as the Cyclones have been playing better and
would like nothing else than to put a speed bump in front of the
Railers’ conference title hopes. Game time for the varsity is
scheduled for 7:30.
LCHS 5-7-13-9 34
DEERFIELD 7-8-10-8 33
LINCOLN (34)
Hopp 6-9 1-1 13, Cook 3-9 4-6 12, Ebelherr 2-2 1-2 5, Block 2-10 0-0
4, Perry 0-1 0-0 0, Bowers 0-1 0-0 0, Aeilts 0-1 0-0 0, TEAM 1333
6-9 34. 3pt FG 2-15 (Cook 2-8, Perry 0-1, Hopp 0-1, Aeilts 0-1,
Block 0-4). Rebounds 20, Assists 4, Turnovers 12.
DEERFIELD (33)
Baum 10, Sherman 9, Zwart 6, Kuznetsky 6, Leonard 2. TEAM 14-33 1-3
33. 3pt FG 4-14 (Baum 2, Kuznetsky 2). Rebounds 25, Assists, 9,
Turnovers 15. [Jeff Benjamin]
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