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 On Friday night, the rankings may not have been as high, and
there may have been a few seats available, but a near-capacity crowd
once again saw the two long-time rivals meet up on Springfield’s
north side. Unfortunately for Railer Nation, the result was the same
as well.
Lanphier senior Nick Patton made three free throws with 1.9 seconds
left to break a tie that would eventually morph into a 40-35 victory
for the Lions. It had been a strange day for Lanphier, but it was a
bad night for the Railers, a night that was a product of the days
leading up to the contest.
“Well, this is how we practiced and I am a firm believer that you
play how you practice,” a disappointed Lincoln Coach Neil Alexander
said after his team’s nine game winning streak was snapped. “We were
soft, we were lethargic, just how we practiced. I guess maybe the
only good thing about it is maybe we will learn something from it.”
 In a game that never saw Lincoln with the lead, the Railers used a
7-0 run late in the contest to eventually tie the game at 35 with
1:37 remaining. Gavin Block, game high scorer with 20 points, split
a pair of free throws to bring the game to even for the first time
since being 18 all. Had the Lincoln senior made both, the result may
have been different. “Gavin missed a big one there at the end,”
Alexander said. “If he makes them both, we’re up and that changes
the complexity of the situation where I don’t think they would have
held for one shot.”
But hold they did. After a bevy of timeouts during the waning
moments, the ball ended up in the hands of Patton on the right wing.
As he went up for the shot, he was fouled by Lincoln’s Isaiah Bowers
and Patton stepped to the line and made all three free throws. After
a Lanphier timeout, Lincoln’s final hope sailed out of bounds as the
inbounds pass never found a Lincoln player’s hands. Xavier Bishop
made two more free throws to reach the final score.
“I know a lot of people are going to blame Isaiah for the loss on
that final play, but don’t blame him. We had plenty of
opportunities,” Alexander said. “I mean how many big free throws,
front ends of one and ones did we miss? We gave up too many easy
scores, they outhustled us, almost doubled us up on the boards. This
is one we all take.”
For the second game in a row, Lincoln’s trademark three point
shooting was not in play. On Friday night, the Railers made only 1
of 15 shots from behind the arc. Over the past two games, Lincoln
has made only three three-pointers. On some nights, that’s a good
quarter for someone. Nope, it certainly was not Lincoln’s night, a
fact that was apparent from the beginning.
Lanphier’s Yakeema Rose who, as a freshman, grabbed the offensive
rebound to force the overtime in last year’s visit to Lanphier,
scored all six of his points in the first quarter as the Lions
jumped out to an unexpected 10-0 lead. However, Rose did most of his
damage on the boards, claiming 11 rebounds, nine of them on the
offensive end. By the time Block used a spin move in the lane to get
Lincoln’s first points of the night with 2:55 left in the quarter,
Lanphier (7-7, 4-3) had made it known they were ready for the
contest, something the Railers may have been lacking.
After Lincoln finally got on the board, the red-clad visitors seemed
to take a deep breath, exhale, and relax. The Railers were using the
quickness they had to get to the basket for easy scores. Payton
Ebelherr found a wide open lane to his liking as he scored his only
points of the night to cut the deficit to 12-6 at the end of the
first quarter. Aron Hopp scored the game’s next two baskets, one on
a drive and another off a baseline move where he used his
flexibility to sidestep the Lanphier defender, avoid the charge and
bring the Lanphier lead down to two at 12-10.
A Lanphier scored pushed the lead back to four, but Block converted
a three point play while being fouled on an out of bounds lob. The
Lions scored again after a deluge of offensive rebounds, but Hopp
kept the Railers (13-3, 4-2) close, scoring on a back door pass from
Ebelherr. The Railers trailed at halftime for only the second time
this season as the teams hit intermission with Lincoln down 18-15.
[to top of second column] |
Remember that three pointer I told you about, the one they made on
the night? Well, it came out halftime as Block tied the game at 18.
But, it did not take long for Bishop and Patton to answer right back
with threes of their own to stretch the lead back to six. With the
lead now extended to 26-18, the Lions seemingly were toying with the
Railers, letting them hang around just enough to get close but never
relinquish the lead. Hopp scored four down the stretch of the quarter to again pull
Lincoln to within five at 28-23, and when Block was fouled just
eight seconds into the fourth quarter and sank both free throws,
Lincoln had cut the game back to one possession. A three pointer
from Lanphier was answered by Block who grabbed his own miss and
scored for Lincoln to make it 31-27. After a floater in the lane
from Bishop pushed the Lanphier cushion back to seven, it felt as
though the Railers were running out of chances. Coach Alexander’s
squad doesn’t know how to quit and they did not in the latter stages
of this one.
Free throws from Block started the surge followed by a tip away and
score from Hopp. Block’s drive cut the game to one and before you
know it, it felt as though the pressure had been heaped on the
Lions. With just over 90 seconds left, Block missed the chance to
give Lincoln its first lead when he split the pair of free throws.
From there, the night belonged to Lanphier as they made five free
throws with less than two seconds to secure the win.
 It was a tough night for the Lincoln offense and much of the credit
can go to Lanphier. The numbers, ugh, not pretty. Lincoln finished
12 of 33 for 37 percent from the field including less than seven
percent from three point range which included Will Cook and Ebelherr
combining to miss all ten of their attempts. Lanphier did not finish
much better, hitting only 33 percent, but their nine extra shots
buoyed by the 33-19 rebound margin gave them just enough chances to
pull out the win.
Only three players scored for Lincoln on Friday. Block’s 20 and Hopp
with 13 were the only ones in double figures while Ebelherr added a
basket. So now, it is a week of waiting before we see how the Railers will
respond to this loss. Their next game is the contest on the first
night of the Central State Eight tournament on January 17. The game
will be played against Decatur Eisenhower, but will be played at The
Bowl in Jacksonville. Game time is scheduled for 6:30pm. It will be
the first night of the tournament to be played on the
Saturday-Monday-Wednesday-Friday-Saturday schedule with the final
Saturday being held at Roy S. Anderson Gymnasium. By that time,
there is no telling how things in the conference will be looking.
“There are five, no six, teams that could win this. I will be
shocked if any team goes through it undefeated,” said Coach
Alexander.
I will be shocked to see the Railers have another game like this.
LINCOLN (35)
Block 5-11 9-11 20, Hopp 6-8 1-3 13, Ebelherr 1-5 0-0 2, Perry 0-1
0-0 0, Cook 0-6 0-0 0, Bowers 0-2 0-1 0. TEAM 12-33 10-15 35. 3pt FG
1-15 (Block 1-4, Perry 0-1, Ebelherr 0-4, Cook 0-6).
LANPHIER (40)
Patton 8, Bishop 7, Rose 6, Jackson 6, Williams 4, Jones 3, McGee 2,
Thames 2, King 2. TEAM 14-41 9-12 40. 3pt FG 3-18 (Bishop, Jones,
Patton).
LCHS 6-9-8-12 35
LANPHIER 12-6-10-12 40
[Jeff Benjamin] |
