Scoring Barrage by Centennial’s Clark Carries Chargers to Win over Railers

 

[November 26, 2024]  LINCOLN -- If basketball victories were determined by forced turnovers, the Railers easily would’ve come out on top in their opening game of the 34th Annual Lincoln Eaton Round Robin Tournament on Monday night against Champaign Centennial.

Mention Railer basketball to a high school basketball enthusiast, and one of the first thoughts that often comes to mind is Lincoln’s 1-2-2 pressure defense. The scheme has been a staple of LCHS basketball for decades, as the structure is solid and often forces opponents into making poor decisions and turning the ball over due to its intensity.

Lincoln goaded the Chargers into 23 turnovers while the Railers only committed a dozen. Unfortunately for LCHS, Centennial’s Sherrod Clark apparently didn’t get the memo about the vaunted Railer press. The 6-foot-1 junior guard scorched the nets for 25 points as Centennial defeated Lincoln 48-44 in the season opener for both squads.

Clark finished the night hitting 9 of 17 field goals, including 7 of 14 three pointers.

While Lincoln coach Neil Alexander was disappointed in the job his defense did against Clark, the Railer head coach saw another area that wasn’t to his liking.

“The problem is, we didn’t find their three-point shooter [Clark],” Alexander said. “We let him hit seven (three pointers). I think he had half their points; we didn’t recognize where he was at.

“And the other thing is, if you give up 14 offensive rebounds, your chances of winning are not good.”

Lincoln gave up 16 defensive rebounds and was outrebounded by Centennial 30-25.

“It’s the first game of the year, and we’ve got a lot to do,” Alexander said. “But to me, that was a very, very physical game. They just bowled us over, and I thought we were going to be stronger and handle that.”

Early in the contest, things seemed to be falling into place for the Railers. Drew Hayes scored the first 4 points of the season for LCHS as the Railers jumped out to an early 8-2 advantage, Lincoln’s largest lead of the game. But Centennial charged back with 6 consecutive points to knot the score 10-10. The Chargers led 15-13 after one quarter and 25-24 at halftime. This was the tone for most of the contest, as the game featured 7 ties and 13 lead changes.

Centennial increased its lead to 27-24 on a basket by Voldy Makabu to open the third quarter scoring. But baskets by Railers Gabe Smith and Hayes put Lincoln up 29-28 two minutes into the stanza. Like an even boxing match, the teams traded blows as they took turns capturing and recapturing the lead from each other through the remainder of the period. The Chargers managed to move ahead 35-31 on a 3-pointer by Clark, but the Railers clawed their way back to take a 37-35 lead after Brody Tungate hit a short jumper with a minute left in the quarter. Clark hit another of his 7 3-pointers before the end of the period to give Centennial a 38-37 lead going into the final stanza.

Lincoln retook the lead when Smith hit a short jumper, then Hayes extended it to 40-38 by hitting a free throw. Centennial recaptured the lead with four unanswered points to go up 42-40.
Frank Sanders knotted the score 42-42 at the 5:22 mark when he received a nice entry pass after sealing his defender off and hit a layup for the Railers. That turned out to be Lincoln’s last basket of the game. LCHS regained the lead 43-42 on a free throw by Hayes, but Centennial got 4 points each from Clark and Tyrek Patterson to pull away. The Railers added one more point on a late free throw, but Centennial came away with a 48-43 victory.

“They played hard,” Alexander said of Centennial. “And they were very physical.”

Of Clark’s 25-point outburst, the Lincoln head coach said, “I don’t know if that kid could shoot like that again; I think he hit one at almost halfcourt out there.”

Lincoln was led in scoring by Smith with 16 followed by Hayes who had 14. Sanders and Brady Miller each added 5 points for Lincoln, while Karson Komnick and Brody Tungate had 2 points each. The Railers shot 16-of-39 from the floor, including 2 of 14 on 3-pointers. Lincoln made 10 of 24 free throws.

Clark led all scorers with 25. Makabu chipped in 9 points. The Chargers hit 20 of their 46 field goal attempts, including 7 of 16 from behind the arc.

A bright spot for Lincoln was the return of assistant coach Eric Ewald to the Railer bench. Ewald was absent from the LCHS bench as he battled medical issues last season, and Alexander said Ewald’s return was a boost.

“It was a win tonight, because we did have him [Ewald] back,” Alexander said. “And it’s so nice to have him; he’s on his way to recovery, and he’s excited to be here, but not as excited as we are to have him back.”

Other scores from Monday in the tournament:

• Belleville West 73 Danville 39

• Belleville Althoff 87, Cahokia 81

Teams in the round robin tournament are split into two pools. The Green Pool consists of Belleville West, Champaign Centennial, Danville and Lincoln; the Red Pool includes Belleville Althoff, Mt. Zion, Springfield and Cahokia.

Tuesday’s games feature Mt. Zion vs. Cahokia at 6 PM followed by Belleville Althoff vs. Springfield at 7:30 PM. In addition, Champaign Centennial will face Danville in Danville.

The next game for the 0-1 Railers will be Wednesday when Lincoln faces Belleville West in a 7:30 PM game.

One alteration has been made to the Friday schedule. Originally, Belleville Althoff and Mt. Zion were scheduled to play 6:15 PM, but as both schools are competing in the IHSA football state finals, the basketball game has been moved to 3 PM (in the football finals, Althoff plays at 10 AM while Mt. Zion plays at 7 PM). The revised Friday 11/29 schedule for the Lincoln basketball tournament is:

• 3 pm - Mt. Zion vs. Belleville Althoff

• 4:30 pm - Cahokia vs. Springfield

• 6:15 pm - Champaign Centennial vs. Belleville West

• 7:45 pm - Lincoln vs. Danville

The finals of the tournament will take place Saturday:

• 3 pm - 7th Place - Green #4 vs. Red #4

• 4:30 pm - 5th Place - Green #3 vs. Red #3

• 6:15 pm - 3rd Place - Green #2 vs. Red #2

• 7:45 pm - Championship - Green #1 vs. Red #1

[Loyd Kirby