Railers run past Mahomet-Seymour 45-26 and improve to 8-0 atop the Apollo Conference

[January 26, 2019]  The Lincoln Railers hosted an Apollo Conference matchup with Mahomet-Seymour Friday night and both Lincoln squads ran past the Bulldogs of Mahomet-Seymour. The Railers JV squad won 34-16 to start the evening and the Railers Varsity followed with a 45-26 win.

In the varsity game the Railers ran out to a 10-2 lead in the first quarter. Jermaine Hamlin scored Lincoln's first bucket, just a nice little tap off the glass that went in for two points.

Will Ewald's first three of the game stretched the lead to 5-0 before the Bulldogs got on the board.

Then it was Kaden Froebe and Dylan Singleton with buckets in the paint to extend the lead to 10-2.

Froebe, who shoots lights out from the free throw line, got the foul and the extra point on his drive.

Hamlin had as many points as fouls (two) in the first quarter and he took a seat on the bench early. Hamlin would remain seated until the third quarter.

In the second quarter Kameron Whiteman's threes in back-to-back possessions for Lincoln mid-way through the quarter would be the entire offense. A week without a game due to weather-related postponements seemed to have an effect on the Railers early.

The Lincoln lead was 16-8 heading into halftime and something was needed to ignite the crowd inside Roy S. Anderson.

The Railette Dance Team had just the trick. It was father-daughter dance night and the Disney Pixar themed evening sure entertained the fans. Fathers and daughters danced in sync and absolutely amused the crowd. Following the dance routine, a huge round of applause was awarded to all the happy participants.

Singleton quickly began the third quarter by stretching Lincoln's lead to 18-8 over the Bulldogs.

Then it was Ewald putting on a show for the fans. First a long three from Ewald drew a huge applause. He then followed that up with a field goal. Finally Ewald capped things off with a beautiful spin move in the lane for two points.

Lincoln's lead was now 27-10 and the Bulldogs were obvious underdogs in this contest. A 28-12 Lincoln lead would close out the third quarter and some fans were beginning to leave early as the snow was falling outside.

The Bulldogs started the fourth quarter by going on an 8-0 run but still the Railers had little to worry about. All season long Lincoln has put together a solid four-quarter effort night in and night out and the week of no competition wasn't about to ruin that streak.

Ewald hit another three for Lincoln to get the fire started under the Railers offense.

Despite Hamlin picking up his fourth foul around the 4:00 minute mark, he stayed in the game.

Singleton and Froebe made a couple nice moves in the lane to keep the Lincoln offense alive. After Froebe's floater, the Lincoln lead was 39-25 with just under 2:00 minutes to play.

When Ewald wasn't sinking baskets, he was penetrating the lane for Lincoln. This time he spotted Whiteman lurking towards the basket and promptly fired it into his fellow junior teammate, who in return made the score 41-26.

Next time down the court it was Ewald again with the moves, this time dishing it off to Hamlin, who was left all alone, for once in this game. The Bulldogs had been hanging on, grabbing, and pushing Hamlin all night long but this time the big guy got loose early and Ewald quickly eyed him. The result was a rim-rattling dunk from the baseline much to the delight of the lively dressed-to-impress student section known as Railer Nation.

Railer Nation, who's theme was Frat/Prep for the evening, didn't disappoint in their enthusiasm and they had waited patiently for a Hamlin dunk all evening. The dunk came with just under a minute to play and made the score a comfortable 43-26. Chants of "I believe that we will win" echoed in the gym.

Shortly thereafter, Froebe took to the free throw line to toss in a couple points and that would conclude things for Lincoln on this evening.

A 45-26 Apollo Conference win over Mahomet-Seymour was celebrated by Railer fans as the LCHS Pep Band played while the crowd dispersed.

A great night at Roy S. Anderson as the Railers improve to 16-2 overall and 8-0 in the Apollo Conference.

Kaden Froebe and Will Ewald each scored 13 points to lead Lincoln.

The Railers JV squad improves to 14-1 with their 34-16 win over Mahomet-Seymour. Landon Hullinger led Lincoln with 12 points.

Lincoln will travel to Nokomis tonight (Saturday) for a matchup with Coach Neil Alexander's alma mater. The JV will tip-off at 5:00 p.m. The varsity game is scheduled to tip-off at 6:30 p.m.

Varsity scoring
Lincoln 45	Mahomet-Seymour 26
Froebe 13  Ewald 13  K. Whiteman 8  Singleton 6  Hamlin 5	Coleman 9 Kamphaus 7 McHale 5 Turner 3 Lener 2

JV scoring
Lincoln 34	Mahomet-Seymour 16
Hullinger 12 Ferguson 8 Tungate 5 Grunder 3 Pollice 2 McCraith 2 B. Whiteman 2	Carr 5 Uken 4 McFall 3 Travis 2 Warren 2

[Teena Lowery]