Railer boys basketball falls to Jacksonville, 64-55

 

[December 16, 2024]  JACKSONVILLE – After hearing LCHS coach Neil Alexander saying his team was looking for a spark and some intensity at several points throughout the young season. Even with a depleted roster, the Railers showed just that as their late comeback fell just short Friday night, and Jacksonville beat Lincoln 64-55 at The Bowl in Jacksonville.

Lincoln went into the game without senior Frank Sanders and junior Karson Komnick. Railer Drew Hayes had missed action recently due to medical reasons, but the LCHS senior returned to action off the bench for Lincoln against the Crimsons. While the Railers had a few games under their belt missing the seniors, this was Lincoln’s first full game without Komnick, who suffered a hand injury in Lincoln’s most recent game, a 47-34 win over Southeast.

“First of all, if you don’t rebound, you don’t have a chance,” Alexander said. “And they got all kinds of rebounds; I think we only had one stop in the first half.

“We’d like to think we’re exciting to watch, but that first three quarters tonight wasn’t that pretty.”

Lincoln fell behind 13-10 after the first quarter as Jacksonville’s Amaree Burries put on a scoring clinic, getting all the Crimsons’ points in the opening frame. Jacksonville extended the lead to 27-19 at the half, and while the margin ballooned to 13 near the end of the third quarter, Lincoln’s Brady Miller drained a last-second three-pointer before the buzzer sounded to end the period. Lincoln trailed 43-32 heading into what would be a wild final quarter.

Ryan McCombs hit a putback shot for Jacksonville to open the fourth quarter scoring and extend the Crimsons’ lead to 45-32. But the Railers then turned up the pressure defensively to cause several turnovers. In addition, Lincoln’s offense exploded for 10 consecutive points to make it a one-possession contest with the score 45-42 in favor of Jacksonville.

But just as it had seemed to be a recurring theme in the first half and even more so in the third quarter, any time it felt as if Lincoln was about to seize control of the contest, Jacksonville had an answer. In this case, after the Railers notched 10 straight points, Crimson Troy Defrates scored on a field goal, making it a five-point deficit for Lincoln with 3:10 remaining in the game.

On the next possession, Brody Tungate added a pair of points from the charity stripe for Lincoln to make it 47-44. Lincoln got the ball after Blake Horn took a charge with 1:33 remaining, back the Railers could not capitalize, miss a three-point attempt. Jacksonville took advantage of the aggressive Railer press with a long outlet pass downcourt by McCombs to Masen Johnson. Johnson passed off to LaMarion Williams, who found Troy Defrates for a short layup. Jacksonville led 49-44 before Blake Horn found an open lane to the basket, hitting the layup and bringing Lincoln closer with the score 49-46.

Jacksonville handled the amped up Railer press, but the Crimsons missed on a three-point attempt. Lincoln could not cleanly corral the ball, and as a held ball was called, the host school retained possession on the alternating possession rule. Unfortunately for the Railers, 49-46 was as close as they could get for the remainder of the game. The Crimsons sank a pair of free throws before and after a runout basket by Masen Johnson. Lincoln would not score again and the Crimsons escaped with a 55-46 victory.

Drew Hayes

Drew Hayes led the Railers with 13 points. Gabe Smith added 11 and Brody Tungate scored 10. Jacksonville’s Burries led all scorers with 25 points.

Lincoln fell to 5-2 overall and 2-1 in the Central State 8 Conference.

Alexander said that improved communication among the Railers would go a long way in helping the team get back on track.

“We just don’t talk,” Alexander said of his players. “We [coaches] talk about it all the time. We try to get them to communicate with each other. We did some silly things, and hopefully they’re a good learning experience for us.”

Along with that, the Railer head coach said he’d like to see his team assert itself on the boards to secure more rebounds.

“I know we’re not big,” Alexander said. “They were big, they were long, they were athletic. But we’ve played a lot of teams like that, and we’re going to play a lot more. So we’ve got to be able to take care of business on the boards.”

[Loyd Kirby]