Lady Railers JV basketball team wins the Lincoln Tournament over the weekend

[November 23, 2016]  Lincoln hosted its own Junior Varsity Tournament this past weekend to kick off the Lady Railers 2016-17 basketball season. The young squad, coached by Todd Koehler, went 3-0 en route to winning the tournament championship at Roy S. Anderson Gymnasium.

To kick things off Friday night the Lincoln JV defeated Taylorville 54-29.

Leah Schneider, a 6’1 freshman, led the Lady Railers with 18 points and Emma Konczyk chipped in 12 points.

Saturday morning the Lady Railers easily handed Porta a 48-12 loss.

Freshman Madelyn Koehler led the Lady Railers in this game with 13 points. Schneider and Konczyk contributed 11 and 10 points respectively.

The championship game was a bit closer with Lincoln coming out on top 60-56 over Canton.

Konczyk, a 5’7 sophomore, led the team with 19 points in the championship game, while Schneider dropped in 13 points and Koehler hit double figures again with 10 points.

Coach Koehler, in fact, said, “The Canton game got a little nuts. We were up pretty good with a couple minutes to go and then we had a few turnovers and we had a little problem with the time clock.” Coach Koehler explained, "They didn’t turn the time clock on and it was stuck at forty seconds for what we believe was probably like a minute, and to where our kids pretty much quit playing. Well, they (Canton) got a couple buckets in that time when the clock was not running. The officials talked about it and they came out of their huddle and told us they were going to take ten seconds off the clock and the buckets that Canton scored counted. So that put us only up by four and we had the ball.

"The other thing that happened while that forty seconds was on the clock was one of the substitutes from Canton was leaning up against the scoreboard and unplugged the scoreboard. So it went blank completely and that’s when our kids quit playing. So they got a bucket off that.

"It was a little wild there at the end and made it interesting. But the kids pulled through and played well. They kept their composure and stuck it out.

"Emma Konczyk came down at the end to knock down a couple key free throws. The whole game we were ahead by anywhere from eight to fourteen points at one time. We were doing well.”

Coach Koehler was proud of the team’s effort all weekend. "The kids played awesome all tournament,” he said. "For a lot of those kids that's the first time they've all played together as a team, coming from different schools.

"We’ve got quite a few freshman on the team and they did real well.

"We’ve got a new sophomore that came out for the team this year, Makenzie Antoine. She came out this year and she’s a huge addition to that JV team. She knocked down some threes. How she plays defense and stuff, for not coming out her freshmen year, she’s just really doing well.

"Brooke Kitner also did well, coming from Chester-East and starting out in a junior varsity game. That’s a pretty good responsibility there and she did well.

"Leah and Maddie, of course, they are the same old show from West Lincoln Broadwell. They do a lot of give and go stuff and rolling to the basket. Madelyn does a good job of hitting Leah in the paint and the other girls do too. They feed her and that’s going to be our bread and butter for JV.”

With this JV squad off to a 3-0 start and the Varsity, which had a stellar season last year, set to open play right after Thanksgiving, the future of Lady Railer basketball looks very good and even Coach Koehler added, “We’ve got some young kids that are going to work in nicely.”

The next game for the Junior Varsity Lady Railers will be at home on December 1st beginning at 6 p.m.

2016-17 Lady Railers JV/Sophomore Basketball Roster

Erin Gowin
Brooke Kitner
Brooke Montcalm
Jenifer Porlas
Madelyn Koehler
Mackenzie Antoine
Leah Schneider
Ruth Lessen
Emma Konczyk

Managers Hilary Lucas and Anna Sielaff


Friday night scoring in Lincoln’s 54-29 win over Taylorville

Brooke Kitner 3
Brooke Montcalm 7
Jenifer Porlas 1
Madelyn Koehler 6
Makenzie Antoine 7
Leah Schneider 18
Emma Konczyk 12

Saturday morning scoring in Lincoln’s 48-12 win over Porta

Brooke Kitner 2
Brooke Montcalm 3
Madelyn Koehler 13
Makenzie Antoine 9
Leah Schneider 11
Emma Konczyk 10

Saturday afternoon scoring in Lincoln’s 60-56 win over Canton

Brooke Kitner 6
Brooke Montcalm 1
Jenifer Porlas 2
Madelyn Koehler 10
Makenzie Antoine 9
Leah Schneider 13
Emma Konczyk 19

[Teena Lowery]