Lincoln finds continued success on the road
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[February 19, 2018]
Back in 1983, the Chicago White Sox surprised everyone by
winning the American League West. For most of the season, the squad
worked under the motto of “winning ugly.” They may not have played
the best defense, hit the ball as needed, or pitched well on any
given night. However, in the end, more times than not, the game
ended up in the win column.
If any members of
that team were on hand to watch the Lincoln Railers on Saturday
night in Decatur, they may have considered the wins during their
campaign works of art.
No, it was not
pretty. At times, it was a downright struggle. Was this the team
that executed to perfection in almost every facet of the game on
Tuesday with the win over Bloomington? Nevertheless, the Railers
did what they had to do and picked up a 44-37 win over the Panthers
of Decatur Eisenhower.
In very similar
fashion to the night before in Taylorville, the Railers struggled in
the early going. Lincoln was finally able to put together a solid
second half to pick up the win. Saturday, Eisenhower just would not
go away, a tone that was set early in the contest.
“On their first
possession, they had five shots, four offensive rebounds and then
ended it with a three pointer,” Coach Neil Alexander said after the
game. “In fact, in their first two possessions, they took eight
shots. I don’t care what kind of defense you think you are playing,
you give a team that many shots per possession and it’s going to be
a long night.”
After Eisenhower
took an early 6-0 lead on two of the team’s nine threes on the
night, senior Isaiah Bowers finally got the Railers on the board
with 3:22 left in the first. Another offensive rebound and putback
by Keon Jones put the Panthers back up by six at 8-2. The Railers
turned to outside shooting to tie the game on threes from Ben
Grunder and Tate Sloan. However, another three from Eisenhower
(10-18) pushed the margin back to 11-8. Lincoln was able to climb
back within one as Bowers found Jermaine Hamlin on a lob and lay-in
as the horn sounded at the end of the first quarter.
For much of the
game, the Railers were making uncharacteristic mistakes. Whether it
was bad passing, not communicating, sloppy ball handling, it seemed
a long week of basketball might have been catching up with Lincoln.
“We have to be mentally prepared to play, we weren’t tonight and we
weren’t completely ready last night,” Alexander said. “When you are
mentally prepared you can be consistent, and if you’re not
consistent you will find yourself losing one that you should win.
And, this time of the year, that will be in a regional and you have
no chance to make it up.”
Jones, who led
Eisenhower with 11 points, hit another long three to start the
quarter and push the lead to four at 14-10. Hamlin continued his
strong play on the evening with an offensive rebound and score
inside. The Panthers scored to go up 16-12 before a layup from
Bowers brought the game back to two. Eisenhower’s main weapon was
the three pointer with nine of their 13 field goals being from
behind the arc. In stark contrast to how the Lincoln defense has
been playing as of late, the Panthers were usually wide open and
standing right on the line. They definitely took advantage of a
Lincoln defense that was having an off night
But, these are your
Railers, and one way or another, during this ten-game winning streak
they find a way. After a free throw from Grunder, the senior hit
his second three of the night to pull Lincoln within one at 19-18.
Over the past few games, it feels as though Grunder has been the
Railer to put the team on his back and Saturday he did it again.
With 2:37 left in the first half, Lincoln grabbed their first lead
of the night on three from the corner from Drew Bacon. The lead was
short lived as Quylan Young scored to tie the game at 21, the score
we took to the locker room.
At the start of the
second half, it looked as though the plan was to go the basket
against the Panthers. Although Lincoln’s first possession came up
empty, the next time down was a carbon copy of the first, this one
resulting in a layup from Bacon. Grunder continued the nice start
to the half with another three, on his way to a game high 15
points. Give Eisenhower credit. Other teams in similar situations
have folded under the pressure of the Lincoln defense but the
Panthers were holding their ground. Another three cut the lead back
to two before a free throw from Bowers and drive from Grunder
extended the margin to five at 29-24. The way the game had been
going, five points felt like 15.
[to top of second column] |
Eisenhower continued to thrash the Lincoln defense from long range,
cutting their deficit to 29-27. Lincoln ended the quarter up 31-27
after Bowers found Titus Cannon wide open off an out of bounds
play. Bowers, who hit double figures with 10, got the first three
of the fourth on a free throw and layup. Up 34-27, Lincoln’s
biggest lead of the night presented the Railers with a chance to
finally put the Panthers away. However, a drive from Cameron Rowe
cut the lead back to five before Hamlin got a pass on the baseline,
put his head and shoulder down to clear space and he went up strong
to give the Railers a 36-29 lead.
Young’s basket cut
the game back to 36-31 before Grunder split a pair of free throws to
move the margin back to six. KJ Taliferro drained a wide open three
to cut the lead in half at 37-34. Lincoln went to a pair of old
reliables to put the game out of reach. Grunder’s drive to the
basket and a 15-footer from Bowers stretched the lead to 41-34. As
Eisenhower was trying to make one final push, the game slipped
through their hands with 53 seconds left. After Cannon was fouled
near the time line by Rowe, the Eisenhower sophomore tried a slight
intimidation tactic by swiping at the ball that Cannon was
cradling. From our position doing the broadcast, I don’t know if
Rowe also said something but his actions were enough to warrant his
second technical foul of the night and an early exit from the game.
Cannon stepped to
the line and made both free throws from the foul and then split the
technical shots to give Lincoln a ten point cushion at 44-34. The
Railers, among other struggles on the night, had a rough evening at
the line going only 7 of 14 from the line, missing their last four
and connecting on just 5 of 11 in the fourth quarter. One final
three from Eisenhower gave us the final score of 44-37.
Maybe after all the
great basketball this team has been playing, they were due one of
these nights. However, we know Coach Alexander preaches that you
can’t afford one of those nights especially this time of year. If
anything, as Alexander said, “maybe they can learn something from
this one. That you can’t just show up and win.” Yes, let’s hope
so. You let teams hang around and they start believing they can win
and your season can be over just like that.
Grunder and Bowers
combined for 25 points with Hamlin scoring six and Cannon and Bacon
each adding five. Sloan rounded out the scoring with his lone three
of the night.
So, we’ve come down
to this. Something that has been coming since the Monday before
Thanksgiving when the season started. The regular season finale is
set for Friday night when Normal West comes to town. It will be
Senior Night and Fan Appreciation Night. Varsity is set to tip at
7:30 but there could be a slight delay with the Senior Night
activities honoring the basketball, band, cheer, and dance seniors
in between games. I encourage you to be there to express your
gratitude for the hard work of all the students that make the
tradition of Lincoln Railer basketball as rich as it is.
LINCOLN (44)
Grunder 5 2-3 15,
Bowers 4 2-7 10, Hamlin 3 0-0 6, Cannon 1 3-4 5, Bacon 2 0-0 5,
Sloan 1 0-0 3, Dewberry 0 0-0 0. TEAM 16 7-14 44. 3pt FG 5
(Grunder 3, Sloan, Bacon).
EISENHOWER (37)
Jones 11, Walker 9,
Taylor 5, Young 4, Chargois 3, Taliferro 3, Rowe 2, TEAM 13 2-4
37. 3pt FG 9 (Jones 3, Walker 3, Taliferro, Taylor, Chargois).
LCHS 10-11-10-13 44
EISENHOWER 11-10-6-10 37
GAME EXTRAS
-
Isaiah Bowers joined the 400 point club with his season total
now at 404 points.
-
With the win, in related categories, Lincoln is now
o
1-2 when tied at the half
o
21-0 when they have more free throw attempts
o
9-1 when scoring 40-49 points
o
18-1 when holding opponents to under 40 points
o
6-3 on Saturdays
o
7-0 in February
o
14-2 when making 4-6 threes in a game
o
8-1 while wearing the Green uniforms
o
14-0 when there are two Railers in double figures
o
10-0 in true road games
[Jeff Benjamin] |