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 [February 07, 2025]
The Lady Railers ruined the Bloomington Purple Raiders Senior
Night on Thursday with a 61-56 win.
Lincoln never trailed in the game, but there were some pretty
intense moments where the Lady Railers lead was threatened. Foul
trouble was an issue too but despite those woes, Mia Clark and
Makinley Knapp made the most of their time on the court, each
scoring a team-leading 16 points. Piper Whiteman added 14 points,
rounding out the trio of double-digit queens.
First quarter
With Mia Clark scoring the first five points of the game and Piper
Whiteman adding a three, Lincoln quickly captured an 8-0 lead. The
Raiders answered with their own five points to trim the lead, but
Lincoln stormed right back. Clark struck gold with back-to-back 3s
and this put Lincoln up 17-6. The Bloomington coach called a timeout
and it seemed to help. The Raiders rattled off five unanswered
points to end the quarter down 17-11.
Second quarter
Knapp and Lily Holmes kept the offense going to start the second
quarter. After Whiteman went 4-for-4 from the free throw line, the
Lady Railers had a nice 28-18 lead. But by halftime the Raiders were
a serious threat to take the lead. Thankfully after a three by
Bloomington, the buzzer sounded and Lincoln was holding on with a
29-27 lead.
Third quarter
Clark opened the third quarter with a much-needed corner three and
then Whiteman added a simple two points to give Lincoln a cushion.
Eventually Lincoln stretched that lead to 38-30. A couple buckets by
the Raiders and they were right back in race. Mesa McCloud answered
with a couple 3s of her own and Lincoln was able to keep Bloomington
in check with a 45-37 lead when the quarter ended.
Fourth quarter
Knapp stretched the lead to ten points as soon as the fourth quarter
began. The Raiders were pretty determined to win on Senior Night and
they kept chipping away at the lead. With around six minutes left in
the game the Lincoln lead dwindled to three points, 49-46 the score.
Knapp bumped the lead to 51-46 with a basket at the 5:35 mark.
Quickly thereafter both Knapp and Clark had four fouls and they had
to play like they were both handling $8.00/dozen eggs.
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The rest of the team stepped it up. With Holmes sneaking in the lane
for two points she would score the team’s last field goal of the
game but thanks to 8-for-10 combined shooting from the line by
Clark, Whiteman, Schneider and Holmes, Lincoln was able to forge
ahead 61-54. Lincoln forced some key turnovers late in the game and
sandwiched those with some missed shots and the Lady Railers came
out on top by a final score of 61-56.
Lincoln improved their record to 16-11.
Bloomington falls to 15-10.
Lincoln will play at Decatur Eisenhower on Saturday. The JV game
will start at 1:00 p.m. The Varsity will tip-off at 2:30 p.m.
In the JV game the Purple Raiders won that battle over Lincoln
44-39. Emma Hutchison led Lincoln with 15 points and Maci Eskra
added 11 points.
Varsity scoring
Lincoln 61
Clark 16
Knapp 16
Whiteman 14
Holmes 8
McCloud 6
Schneider 1
Bloomington 56
Lenard 14
Embry 13
Shuey 9
Dadekian 8
Skeate 6
Buss 3
May 3
JV scoring
Lincoln 39
Hutchison 15
Eskra 11
Chen 7
Hinton 4
Schneider 2
Bloomington 44
Ellis 19
Moody 11
Bennett 9
Kylie 2
Aubrey 2
Amire 1
[Teena Lowery]
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