Railer boys basketball team toughs out a 38-35 win over Sacred Heart-Griffin

 

[December 04, 2023]  Springfield – After a rollercoaster week of performances by the Lincoln basketball team in going 2-2 in the season-opening Lincoln/Eaton Round Robin Tournament during Thanksgiving week, head coach Neil Alexander said his players needed to be more physical and tough in handling the ball and working against the pressure defenses of opponents.

Message received.

The Railers ratcheted up their defense and got some timely offense—including a 10-0 scoring run to end the third quarter—to notch a 36-33 win over Sacred Heart-Griffin in Lincoln’s return to the Central State 8 Conference.

Lincoln found itself trailing the entire first half thanks to some hot shooting by Sacred Heart-Griffin. The Cyclones shot 50 percent from the field for the first half, including hitting three of five three pointers. SH-G led 23-17 at the intermission.

In the game played in the spacious BOS Center on a longer, college-sized court as part of the Capital City Showcase, the Cyclones shot the ball at a 41.9 percent clip from the field on the night. However, Lincoln did manage to turn up the pressure and cause a few more turnovers in the second half, due in part to a tactical change by Coach Alexander.

Coach Neil Alexander

“Playing on a bigger floor, it makes it tougher on our defense,” he said. “We tried to back it [our full-court press] down to visualize it like a high school-sized court, and we didn’t get any pressure on them. We finally said, ‘We’ve got to go; we’ve got to get up on them and pressure them a little bit.’”

Drew Hayes

For most of the third quarter, it didn’t appear the change was going to make much difference, as SH-G held an eight point advantage with 2:30 left in the stanza. But Lincoln went on a 10-0 run to end the quarter leading 31-29. Drew Hayes and Karson Komnick scored four points each in the run and Gabe Smith added two on a nice coast-to-coast layup after stealing an errant Cyclone pass.

Karson Komnick

Lincoln led 31-29 heading into the fourth quarter. A pair of Cyclone free throws knotted the game 31-31 at the 7:10 mark. After the teams traded possessions, Lincoln got another field goal from Hayes but SH-G answered with a field goal of its own to keep the game deadlocked at 33-33.

Following the Cyclones’ score, Hayes inbounded the ball to Komnick, who in turn got it over to Ki’on Carson. Carson looked to the opposite side of the court, throwing a bullet through the defense to get the ball to Smith. Smith dumped it down to Karson Komnick on the left baseline, and he promptly drained the three pointer to give Lincoln its biggest lead of the night at 36-33.

Sacred Heart-Griffin managed a field goal in the closing minute of the game, and Komnick hit a pair of free throws to give Lincoln its final margin of victory at 38-35,

Komnick led all scorers with 11 points. Hayes added nine points, and Trey Schilling and Gabe Smith each scored six.
 

Gabe Smith

The Railers shot 41.6 percent (14 for 38) including four of 20 from the three point line. Lincoln was outrebounded 25-15 by the Cyclones, but SH-G committed 16 turnovers compared to nine for Lincoln.

With the win, Lincoln moves to 3-2 on the season, including 1-0 in the CS8. Sacred Heart-Griffin dops to 1-4 overall and 0-1 in the conference.

The next Railer game takes place Tuesday night as Lincoln travels to Southeast for another Central State 8 game. Lincoln is then home Friday night against Jacksonville. Tipoffs for both contests are slated for 7 p.m.

Box Score

[Loyd Kirby]