Cannon leads second half surge as Railers advance in Collinsville
LINCOLN 52, URBANA 43

[December 29, 2016]  Through the first eight games of the season, junior guard Titus Cannon had scored 31 points. It would be understandable that Cannon would be focusing on running the offense and playing the point on defense before concentrating on where he falls in the scoring column. However, in Lincoln’s last game before Christmas, the junior set his career high with 13 points. On Wednesday, he matched those 13 points and keyed a more effective offense as the Railers advanced in the winner’s bracket with a 52-43 win over the Urbana Tigers on day one of the Prairie Farms Holiday Classic. The win puts Lincoln in a Thursday showdown with top seeded Edwardsville.

Although the Collinsville tournament only announces the top four seeds, the brackets set up where the Lincoln-Urbana matchup would feature the eight and nine seeds. Normally, games featuring those two seeds are evenly played. The Railers and Tigers saw the game tied on six occasions and had the same number of lead changes. In the end, though, it was the play of Cannon that made the difference.

“Titus Cannon was the key tonight. He had the right kind of night we needed,” Lincoln coach Neil Alexander said after the game. “We didn’t react real well on some things, but we did enough to win and move on.”

For the game, Lincoln shot 55 percent to Urbana’s 41, while forcing the Tigers into 19 turnovers, committing only seven of their own. In a major change for normal Railer operations, Lincoln scored 32 points in the paint, a large portion of those coming from either back door plays or drives to the basket. For those that are regular attendees at Railer games, the back door play that you’ve seen time and again worked over and over and over. The benefit of playing a team that you don’t usually see in the season is being able to use plays that conference foes might smell out even the first time.

“I think we scored on five or more times with that play,” Alexander said. Whether it was using the over aggressive play of Urbana (4-7) against them or taking advantage of a new defender in the game, Lincoln seemed to be able to score at will on the play. The issue came up in the play between the back door sets. In the end, it took a 15-6 run at the end of the game, with Drew Bacon scoring six of the final seven, for Lincoln to seal their win and move on to a different breed of Tigers, the ones from Edwardsville.

The Railers took the early lead on, no surprise here, a back door from Cannon to Isaiah Bowers. After Urbana’s Jamon Carter-Grady gave the Tigers a 4-2 lead, the Railers (9-1) used an 8-0 run on a pair of threes from Bryson Kirby and basket from Bowers to jump to a 10-4 lead. The Lincoln scoring ended the way it started on another back door layup from Bowers, this time on a pass from Tate Sloan.

Urbana may have had trouble throughout the game in taking care of the basketball. But, when they did, their speed and willingness to get up and down the floor presented problems for the Railers. This Urbana team had already defeated Danville, the only blemish on the Lincoln ledger and had put up over 100 earlier in the season. Rebounding was a key component during the 11-0 run that gave Urbana a 16-12 lead, led by Kristion Dixon. Dixon scored twice on offensive boards using his long arms and good rebounding position to outdo Lincoln on the boards.

As has become a habit of his, Kirby stepped up with a big three pointer to stop the run and allow Bowers to give Lincoln the lead with a three the next time down and as quick as Urbana had grabbed the lead, the Railers were back up 18-16. Urbana tied the game at 18, but fell behind again when Ben Grunder was the recipient of a back door pass from Cannon. After a turnover gave the Railers one final chance before halftime, Bowers drove the lane and his finger roll crept over the front of the rim as time expired providing Lincoln with a four point margin at the break.

Remember earlier when I mentioned how key the play of Cannon was in this one? Notice any mentions of scores by the Lincoln point guard? At halftime, Cannon had not scored but that would definitely change over the final sixteen minutes. With Lincoln up 24-21 early in the third, it was Cannon who was the benefactor of a back door pass from Kirby. Urbana continued their ability to not let Lincoln get away and tied the game at 26 by speeding up the game and not allowing the Railers to force their will on the Tigers. 

The contest stayed nip and tuck through the rest of the third and in the early portion of the fourth. With 2:56 left in the third, Kirby hit his fourth three of the night only to be matched by Jasia Fayne. Cannon scored on another drive to the basket but Fayne hit from long range again, this time giving the Tigers a 32-31 lead. It was Cannon again scoring to put Lincoln up by one and after some back and forth in the game of turnovers, Bowers found Cannon wide open down court on an out of bounds play. Cannon, harkening back to his play as wide receiver during football season, made the catch and hit the layup to move the Lincoln lead to three. Kamari Ray-Davis hit a three to send the game into the fourth tied at 35.

Grunder put Lincoln up quickly in the fourth, but again was answered by Urbana. A drive again by Cannon gave the Railers the lead, an advantage they would not relinquish on the afternoon. Free throws from Bowers and Cannon put Lincoln in front 41-37, but Urbana continued to hang close on a three from Mystikal Suggs. The Railers scored on consecutive back doors to Cannon and Bowers, pushing the lead to five. Dawson hit a three for Urbana’s final scoring before Bacon took over. Bacon scored in the lane on two straight possessions and also sank a pair of free throws to seal the win.

After having four in double figures last week against SHG, the Railers had three on Wednesday night with Bowers leading the way 16. Cannon and Kirby added 13 with Bacon scoring six, all in a short span late in the game. Grunder chipped in with four.

Last week, Coach Alexander mentioned ‘we want Edwardsville, we want the challenge to see just where we stand as a team.’ Well, at 11:30 on Thursday morning, that wish will be granted. Edwardsville was an 83-53 winner over McCluer North. “Well, we will have to come out and give it our best shot,” Alexander said. “All I can hope for is that we play hard. That is something I don’t know if we did throughout today. If we rebound against them (Edwardsville) like we did today, we might not get one rebound.”

Lincoln has been in the spot of being the number one seed against a team they appear to have the edge over. However, when the threes start falling and the defense plays as well as it can, Lincoln can never be counted out. Thursday will certainly test that.

If Lincoln wins, they will play either Southeast or Eisenhower at 6:30pm. A Railer loss puts them in a 5:00 matchup with one of those teams.

LINCOLN (52)

Bowers 7-12 1-2 16, Cannon 6-7 1-4 13, Kirby 4-11 1-2 13, Bacon 2-3 2-2 6, Grunder 2-3 0-0 4, Hullinger 0-2 0-0 0, Sloan 0-0 0-0 0, Morris 0-0 0-0 0. TEAM 21-38 5-10 52. 3pt FG 5-16 (Kirby 4-10, Bowers 1-4, Hullinger 0-2). Assists 15 (Cannon, Bowers 5), Rebounds 14 (Bowers 4).

URBANA (43)

Suggs 10, Ray-Davis 9, Dixon 7, Fayne 6, Dawson 5, Shaw 3, Carter-Grady 2, Duke 1. TEAM 16-39 2-4 43. 3pt FG 9-26 (Ray-Davis 3, Suggs 2, Fayne 2, Dawson, Shaw). Assists 11, Rebounds 28.

LCHS 12-10-13-17 52
URBANA 8-10-17-8 43

[Jeff Benjamin]