Little things add up in Lincoln loss
SOUTHEAST 47, LINCOLN 31

[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.

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.

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.”

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!”

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.

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).

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