Little things add up in Lincoln loss
SOUTHEAST 47, LINCOLN 31
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[February 04, 2017]
On Friday night, the Lincoln
Railers began their February portion of the schedule. Surprisingly,
it was the first time they had squared off against Springfield
Southeast. With second place in the Central State Eight on the line,
both teams were looking to keep their conference title hopes alive.
When the dust settled at Scheffler Gymnasium, it was the home
standing Spartans that did what they needed to come away with the
47-31 victory. The win lifts Southeast to 14-6 on the season and
10-2 in conference while the Railers fall to 15-9 and 9-4.
“I thought our game plan coming into tonight, how we were going to
attack their press, was excellent,” Lincoln coach Neil Alexander
said after the game. “But, we didn’t execute, didn’t do the little
things and against a good team like this, we have to play perfect.
Our margin of error is zero.”
Friday night, there were struggle around every corner. The Railers
shot less than 40 percent, turned the ball over 13 times, missed
numerous layups, and were almost rebounded by a single Southeast
player. On the whole, it was a rough night.
After a slow start form both teams, the Railers jumped out to a 6-5
lead on the strength of a pair of three pointers from Bryson Kirby.
Over the past few games, Kirby was been Lincoln’s Most Wanted as
opposing teams have focused their energies on shutting down
Lincoln’s top outside threat. Kirby has been able to get a few
shots, but mostly at the end of the game. At Southeast, the senior
hit his first two from beyond the arc, giving Railer Nation cause to
celebrate the possibility of a big night from Kirby. Unfortunately
for the Railers, even the three point offense abandoned them on
Friday night as they hit only 2 of 15 the rest of the night with
none coming after halftime.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Feb/04/images/ads/current/fifthst_sda_BASKETBALL_2016.png)
Lincoln did stretch out to a three point lead when Ben Grunder was
able to drive to the basket and put the Railers up 8-5. Southeast
began the first of two big runs with success on the boards. An
offensive rebound and put back from Isaiah Walton pulled the
Spartans closer before Kobe Medley hit a three to put Southeast up
10-8 at the end of the first quarter. On the night, the rebounding
edge belonged squarely in the corner of Southeast, winning the board
battle 23-9.
The run continued as Walton scored four more, both baskets off
Railer turnovers. The giveaways were disheartening as they were
mostly unforced errors. Passes over the head or too far to the side
for clean catches, ten counts in the backcourt against slight
pressure. You name it, Lincoln showed a variety of ways to turn the
ball over. A basket from Anthony Fairlee helped extend the lead to
17-8. The 12-0 run finally came to an end as junior Isaiah Bowers
hit a three at the 3:31 mark to end the second quarter drought and
pull the Railers within 17-11. After a Southeast turnover, Lincoln
appeared to draw even closer on a spin move in the lane and basket
from Grunder. However, the junior was called for travelling, a call
that did not sit well with the Lincoln bench.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Feb/04/images/ads/current/statebank_sda.png)
In what may have been one of the tamest discussions to result in a
technical foul, Coach Alexander, who stayed seated during the entire
process, was disputing the call with a nearby official. Not knowing
exactly what was said between the two, the official had apparently
gotten to his limit and calmly called a technical. Southeast split
the free throws to go up 18-11. Lincoln seemed to build a little
more aggressiveness as Bowers was fouled on a drive to the hoop. He
made both free throws and then drained a deep three to cut the
deficit to two. Southeast pushed the lead to four after another
score from Fairlee, giving the Spartans a 20-16 advantage heading to
the break.
Being down at halftime has become like a rock in the shoe. You know
it’s there and it is annoying but it’s not going away until you do
something about it. Coming into Friday night, the Railers were just
1-6 when down after the first sixteen minutes.
Lincoln struggled to only six points in the third quarter, but hung
tough defensively, giving up only nine. Despite the troubles on the
offensive end, the hustle and toughness on the defensive end was
still on display. “No matter what happened tonight, these guys
played hard and gave it every thing they had,” Alexander said. “We
just have to clean up the simple things.”
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The Railers were held to baskets by Grunder and Drew Bacon, while
Titus Cannon sank a pair of free throws. The one thing that looked
like might be swinging the game in Lincoln’s favor came with 3:18
left in the third when Southeast senior lead Treyvon Williams picked
up his fourth foul. Up to that point, their leader had scored just
two points. A basket from Walton extended the Spartan lead to seven
at 29-22.
So, everything on a strange night had gone wrong and yet, the
Railers were only down seven heading to the fourth quarter. The game
was still in reach and a great fourth quarter would make this a game
to be decided in the final minutes. The fourth got off to just that
start when Grunder scored off a pick and roll to bring the game to
just a five point margin. As my former broadcast partner Tom Larey
was fond of saying “here come the Railers!”
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Feb/04/images/ads/current/carpethouse_BASKETBALL_2016.png)
Alas, instead of being able to use that phrase over and over during
the fourth, it ended up being more like ‘there go the Spartans.’ A
three pointer from Medley started an 18-4 run down the stretch, a
stretch that saw the same things going wrong that had peppered the
first three quarters. Lincoln ran out of gas while the Spartans
stepped on the gas.
The final breath of air may have gone out of the Railers when down
35-26. After a Southeast miss, the ball was thrown and tipped around
by the Spartans. As the ball was traveling toward midcourt along the
near sideline, a Spartan player jumped into the air to save the ball
from going out of bounds but landed in the back court. As the
whistle blew, what seemed to be a turnover that would give the ball
back to Lincoln turned out to be a timeout called by Southeast. In
most circumstances, a timeout is not awarded to a player in a
situation where an imminent change of possession is possible.
However, it was, and it was hard to feel positive about any good
happening the rest of the evening.
From there, it was more struggles from the floor while Southeast, a
team that came in shooting 65 percent from the free throw line,
picked Friday night to hit 14 of 18, including 12 of 13 in the
second half. Most of those came from the game’s high scorer, Anthony
Fairlee. The sophomore was a 48 percent free shooter but hit 8 of 9.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Feb/04/images/ads/current/eaton_sda_032114.png)
It was just one of those nights. In the end, there were no
complaints about calls made by the officials. It was a simple
message. In order for Lincoln to win, they have to make shots,
especially the layups. Southeast is certainly a good team, but there
was enough on the court Friday to let you believe the Railers could
beat this team. A lot of things will have to go better, but a win
over the Spartans in the regular season finale is not out of the
question.
No one for the Railers reached double figures as Bowers led the way
with eight points. Kirby and Grunder each scored six, while Cannon
added five points. Bacon chipped in with four with Jermaine Hamblin
adding a late basket for his two.
The Railers will have plenty of time to prepare for their next
obstacle. Lincoln is not in action again until Friday night when the
Lanphier Lions come to Roy S. Anderson for the final time as
conference foe. Tip time is set for 7:30pm.
LINCOLN (31)
Bowers 2 2-2 8, Kirby 2 0-0 6, Grunder 3 0-0 6, Cannon1 3-6 5, Bacon
2 0-0 4, Hamblin 1 0-0 2, Hullinger 0 0-0 0, Morris 0 0-0 0, Sloan 0
0-0 0, Combs 0 0-0 0, Birnbaum 0 0-0 0. TEAM 11 5-8 31. 3pt FG 4
(Kirby 2, Bowers 2).
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Feb/04/images/ads/current/lincoln_college_sda_railer_2016.png)
SOUTHEAST (47)
Fairlee 18, Walton 13, Medley 7, Williams 4, Murdix 3, Johnson 2.
TEAM 15 14-18 47. 3pt FG 3 (Medley 2, Murdix).
LCHS 8-8-6-9 31
SOUTHEAST 10-10-9-18 47 |