LINCOLN 43, BARTONVILLE LIMESTONE 23; DANVILLE 49, LINCOLN 28

[November 28, 2016]  For most games, the formula for Lincoln Railer success is playing solid pressure defense, making a good percentage of open looks, especially from three point range, and basically making the other team feel uncomfortable on both ends of the court. On Saturday night in the final game of the Eaton Electrical Round Robin Tournament, well, the best way to put it is that Lincoln got Lincoln’ed.

The Danville Vikings did just about everything right on Saturday night, coasting to an easy 49-28 win over Lincoln. With the win, Danville forced a three-way tie at 4-1 with the Railers and Mahomet-Seymour. Based on the tiebreaker, Mahomet-Seymour was crowned as the tournament champion on the basis of having the best free throw percentage amongst the three teams. Earlier in the day, Lincoln held Limestone to just 23 points while Danville returned the favor by holding Lincoln to their lowest output in a game at the tournament with 28 points. It was one of those nights and Danville did their part by being the commanding, in-control team but the Railers certainly helped.

Lincoln shot just 19 percent in the first half and did not make a three pointer until Bryson Kirby started the second half by hitting a three during Lincoln’s best run of the game , a 5-0 mini-spurt that got the Railers as close as they would get at 23-13. It’s usually Lincoln that I am talking about when a team goes on multiple or well-timed runs. Again, it was Danville playing the role of Lincoln, going on runs of 7-0, 7-0, and 9-0. It felt as those each Lincoln turnover quickly was converted to points by the Vikings and by the time Lincoln called a timeout down 16-4, there was a sense it was going to get worse before it got better.

“Disappointed,” Lincoln coach Neil Alexander said after the game. “I just don’t know what to say. Even though we won earlier, it was all day. I just didn’t see the hop in the step like in the first three games. I was encouraged after game three, but today, it just wasn’t there.”

From down 16-4, the Danville lead ballooned to 23-8 by halftime. Lincoln’s brief sign of life came at the start of the second half with Kirby’s three and a shot down low from Drew Bacon. Otherwise, Danville was in control all night.

“Give Danville credit, they are a good team,” Alexander said, “but we’ve got to find guys that can execute our offense. When the ball goes in the middle, we need our wings to be below the ball and tonight that wasn’t happening. We have a lot of things to work on, but we have a week before our next game so we will have time to try to get things corrected.”

Danville did a solid job of keeping Lincoln from using the three pointer as a scoring option. The Railers got good looks, but could not find the bottom of the basket in the first half. Missing all 11 attempts while Danville stayed in the 2-3 zone, almost daring Lincoln to shoot threes. Think about it, a team playing defense, saying to the Railers ‘we don’t think you can beat us taking threes so go ahead.’ And, they were right.

The Railers were led by Isaiah Bowers with 12 points, but even Lincoln’s leading scorer this week found open looks at the basket hard to find. The stats will show Lincoln ended with four threes, but three of those (2 by Titus Cannon and another from Nolan Hullinger) came well after the game had been decided.

As well as the Railers played to get to 4-0, there was certainly a sour taste for Railer Nation after Saturday night. It is only one loss and 4-1 is not the worst way to start the season. But, with conference season just around the corner, how will teams that are more familiar with the Railers use the Danville defensive game plan when it’s their turn?

Along with Bowers hitting 12, Cannon scored six with Hullinger and Kirby adding three. Bacon and Ben Grunder each scored a pair for the Railers.

The Railers did manage to get two players named to the all-tournament team. Bryson Kirby and Isaiah Bowers each found a place on the eight-man squad. The entire list follows at the end of the story.

The Railers started their Saturday in dominant fashion, using record-setting defense on the way to a 43-23 win over the Rockets of Bartonville Limestone. It was the first time the two teams had met in the opening tournament since 2001 and my guess is that the Rockets would have been OK with waiting another year.

By holding the Rockets to just 23 points, Lincoln tied their own record for fewest points allowed in a game during the tournament. The Railers held Champaign Centennial to 23 points during a 41-23 win back in 2005. Add in the ingredient of forcing more turnovers (24) than points allowed (23) and you’ve got the recipe for a Lincoln win. It was also a game where the Railers had to find other scoring options than leading scorer Isaiah Bowers who was held without a field goal until the early stages of the fourth quarter.

The first of the two Saturday games can always be a dangerous game. You never know how ready a team will be, plus the difference in atmosphere without a full crowd, the pep band, etc. The offenses for both teams took a while to get going, and Limestone never really found any rhythm during the contest. Lincoln was held to just one basket during the first eight minutes, a three pointer from Kirby. The only other points for the Railers came from Bowers as he hit three of four from the line.

Holding a 6-5 lead at the end of one was not the comfortable, relaxing game the Railers were hoping for as they prepared to battle Danville later in the night. Without much offense from Bowers, Lincoln turned to Bacon, who scored eight of his game high 12 points during a 15-0 run by the Railers. Bacon was a force on the low blocks and whether it was scoring on an alley oop lob from Grunder or converting on an offensive rebound, the junior had his best game of the young season helping the Railers jump out to a 21-5 lead. The Rockets finally got on the board in the second quarter on free throws and a basket from Caleb Barber. Even though the Railers were up as much as 16 in the first half, Limestone was able to put enough together on the offensive end to cut the deficit to 11 at halftime, with the score 23-12.

In a similar fashion to the second quarter, the Limestone offense was on hiatus for much of the third, although they had their chances. Early in the quarter, one possession saw every Rocket on the floor have a shot, either through offensive rebound or finding an opening. Not one attempt fell and the Railers took advantage of the inaccuracy as Bacon scored to start a 12-2 run. Without Bowers, Bacon needed a scoring partner and the end of run was highlighted by the play of Grunder. The junior scored on a reverse layup and then a shot off the glass as the buzzer sounded. Grunder tallied again with the first score of the fourth and the lead had climbed to 35-14.

Again the biggest problems for Limestone were the turnovers and scoring droughts. The Rockets were able to bring it to 35-17 before another Grunder basket preceded Bower’s first basket of the game with 5:32 to go in the game on a back door pass from Tate Sloan. Even though it was not the prettiest game, it did allow a brief chance for some of the regulars to get some rest before the nightcap.

Bacon led the way with a career high 12 points, while Grunder and Bowers added nine. Kirby hit a pair of threes for six, Tate Sloan chipped in with three, while Titus Cannon and Nolan Hullinger scored two.

So now the Railers can turn their attention to Central State Eight play and that gets started on Saturday at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield during the Central State Eight Shootout. The Railers have a 1:30 game scheduled Saturday afternoon with Rochester. Hope to see all of Railer Nation there as it will the 24th and final time the Railers will open a CS8 season. Next year at this time, we will be talking about opening the Apollo Conference slate but there are too many sunrises and sunsets before then.

LINCOLN (43)

Bacon 6 0-2 12, Bowers 2 5-6 9, Grunder 4 1-2 9, Kirby 2 0-0 6, Sloan 1 0-0 3, Cannon 1 0-0 2, Hullinger 0 2-2 2, Morris 0 0-0 0, Combs 0 0-0 0, Birnbaum 0 0-0 0. TEAM 16 8-12 43. 3pt FG - 3 (Kirby 2, Sloan).

BARTONVILLE LIMESTONE (23)

Youmans 10, Barber 8, Kizer 2, Wall 2, James 1. TEAM 9 3-6 23. 3pt FG – 2 (Barber, Youmnas).


LCHS 6-17-10-10 43
LIMESTONE 5-7-2-9 23



LINCOLN (28)

Bowers 5 2-3 12, Cannon 2 0-0 6, Hullinger 1 0-0 3, Kirby 1 0-0 3, Bacon 1 0-0 2, Grunder 1 0-0 2, Slaon 0 0-0 0, Morris 0 0-0 0, Birnbaum 0 0-0 0, Combs 0 0-0 0. TEAM 11 2-3 28. 3pt FG – 4 (Cannon 2, Hullinger, Kirby).

DANVILLE (49)

Houpt 12, Moore 11, Davis-Williams 10, Griffin 6, Cobb-Griffin 4, Reed 3, Forthenbeery 3. TEAM 18 7-8 49. 3pt FG – 6 (Griffin 2, Moore, Davis-Williams, Houpt, Forthenbeery).

LCHS 4-4-9-11 28
DANVILLE 9-14-12-14 49

All-Tournament: LCHS (Isaiah Bowers, Bryson Kirby), Danville (Sean Houpt, Kendle Moore), Mahomet-Seymour (Cory Noe, Noah Benedict), Cahokia (Thomas Bell), Limestone (Caleb Barber).

Extra Tourney notes: (all info is based on tourney since configuration in 1999)
- Mahomet-Seymour’s title first in three tourneys.
- Lincoln’s 28 points are the 8th fewest for a team in a single game.
- Lincoln broke into the top 10 of fewest points scored during a single tourney (209 – 5th fewest all-time) and fewest points allowed (195 – 3rd best).
- By being named to the all-tourney team, Isaiah Bowers becomes the 10th Lincoln player to receive the honor two or more times (Ben Brackney and Jordan Nelson (both 3 times), Gregg Alexander, Gavin Block, Max Cook, Brandon Farmer, Cory Farmer, Aron Hopp, and Matt Schick).