Railers split day 2 games in Collinsville Holiday Tourney, play for 3rd place Friday

 

[December 29, 2023]  Collinsville – The Railer boys basketball team had its six-game winning streak snapped in its second of two games on Thursday, sending Lincoln into the third-place game of the Collinsville Classic Holiday Tournament against O’Fallon on Friday at 6 PM.

12/28 game vs. Belleville East

In Lincoln’s opening game of the tournament on Wednesday, the sharpshooting of Trey Schilling carried the Railers to victory over McCluer North of Florissant, Mo. In Lincoln’s first of its two Thursday games, it was a similar story with a different Railer carrying the load as Karson Komnick hit all 3 of his 3-pointer attempts in going 4 for 4 overall from the field to lead Lincoln to a 40-27 win over Belleville East.

Karson Komnick

The teams traded turnovers on their opening possessions of the game before Drew Hayes snatched a rebound and hit Ki’on Carson with a long outlet pass. Carson scored a layup to get Lincoln on the scoreboard. On the next Lincoln possession after Belleville East’s Jacori Brown made 1 of 2 free throws to halve the Railer lead, Komnick took a pass from Drew Hayes near the left baseline and drained the first of his 3 3-pointers in the game to put Lincoln up 5-1.

Belleville East managed to knot the score at 5-5, but Komnick hit his second 3-pointer from the left wing to give Lincoln an 8-5 advantage.

Although the score ebbed and flowed and the game never felt like it was in hand until late in the fourth quarter, Lincoln never trailed or was tied again the rest of the contest. The Railers held Belleville East to three points for the remainder of the quarter, and Komnick added a field goal on a strong drive from the top of the key to the basket to give him 8 points in the quarter and to stake Lincoln a 10-5 lead going into the second quarter.

The Railers scored the first five points of the second period, but Belleville ran off the next four points to pull to make the score 15-12. Lincoln’s Gabe Smith then notched the next 5 points for the Railers, bookending a Belleville East field goal with a pair of free throws and a traditional 3-point play to give LCHS a 20-14 advantage. Schilling picked up where he left off the previous game, nailing a 3-pointer to give Lincoln 9-point lead—the same margin the Railers would hold at halftime, 25-16.

The Railer lead ballooned to 14 when Schilling hit another 3-pointer to put Lincoln ahead 32-18 with just over a minute left in the third quarter. Although Belleville East kept coming at Lincoln the rest of the game with full court pressure and run-and-jump, double-teaming defense, the Lancers could get no closer than 8 points as the Railers advanced, 40-27.

“They keep coming at you, and it’s great,” said Railer head coach Neil Alexander. “I love it, because it’s teaching us how to play a little bit more and teaching us how to play basketball.”

Overall, the Railers shot 44.8 percent from the field (13 of 29) and hit 6 of 10 (60 percent) of their 3-point attempts while holding Belleville East to 26.5 percent from the field and missing all 9 of its 3-point shots.

“Our kids fought,” Alexander said. “We made some mistakes, but it’s not like they did it on purpose. They’re out there trying and working; we just want to make everything the best that we can and get as much as we can out of our trip down here.”

Ki'on Carson

Komnick led Lincoln with 11 points, Carson scored 10, Smith tallied 7 and Schilling added 6 for the Railers, who reached double digits in wins in improving their record to 10-3.

Brown led Belleville East with 10 points.

The victory in the 2:30 PM game against Belleville East moved Lincoln into the tournament semifinals at 7:30 PM against the host school.

Coach Neil Alexander

12/28 game vs. Collinsville

Collinsville showed how it earned its undefeated record as the Kahoks took a running-clock victory over the Railers, 67-41.

Jamorie Wysinger opened the scoring with a 3-pointer for Collinsville from well beyond the three-point arc, providing a preview of half of the Kahok attack for the game. All the shots Wysinger took in the game were 3-pointers, as he hit 7 of 10 to lead all scorers with 21 points.

The other half of the Collinsville attack came in the form of Zach Chambers. The 6-foot-9 senior was a force inside for the Kahoks, hitting all but one of his eight field goal attempts in tallying 16 points.

Following Wysinger’s opening 3-pointer, Lincoln scored the next 4 points on a Gabe Smith layup and a Karson Komnick jump shot to give the Railers a 4-3 lead. Nick Horras hit a layup for Collinsville and Ki’on Carson nailed a jumper to keep Lincoln ahead by a point, 6-5. The lead would be short-lived, however, as Collinsville reeled off 9 straight points to grab a 14-6 advantage.

The Kahoks were never seriously threatened the rest of the way, as Collinsville led the remainder of the game, leading 19-13 after the first quarter and 36-20 at halftime.

Lincoln got no closer than 15 in the second half, and when Wysinger drained his sixth 3-pointer at the 6:00 mark of the final quarter, Collinsville pushed its lead to 30 and the running clock was in effect for the remainder of the contest. Lincoln did outscore the Kahoks 12-10 in the fourth quarter, but the sizable lead was too much to overcome as Collinsville won 67-41.

“They’ve got everything you need,” Alexander said following the game. “They’ve got outside shooting, they’ve got ball handling, they’ve got guys who can play at the high post and low post who are hard to guard. They’re well coached. They just attacked us a ripped us apart.

“They just flat-out beat us. We just got thumped.”

The Kahoks shot a sizzling 63.4 percent (26 of 41) from the field for the game, including 50 percent (9 of 18) on 3-pointers. Lincoln managed 37.5 percent (15 of 40) from the field while making 5 of 16 (31.3 percent) of its 3-point attempts.

Aidan Gowin

Aidan Gowin was the lone player in double figures for Lincoln with 14 points. The Railer senior had a perfect shooting night, hitting all 4 of his field goal attempts, three of which were 3-pointers. Gowin also made all three free throws he attempted.

The loss sends Lincoln into the third place game of the tournament on Friday, Dec. 29 against O’Fallon. Exactly one year prior, on Dec. 29, 2022, Lincoln beat O’Fallon 45-22 in the 2022 Collinsville Tournament. Cam Nelson and Jake Bivin led the Railers with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Alexander said he believes O’Fallon will carry the memory of that 2022 loss into the 2023 game.

“They’re going to have spit in their fire tomorrow,” Alexander said, “because of what we did to them last time when, after three quarters, they had 10 points. I think they ended up with 22 last year, so they’re going to try to score 22 in the first two minutes.”

Tipoff for the third place game between Lincoln and O’Fallon is scheduled for 6 PM.

[Loyd Kirby]