Railers down Lanphier 43-36 for 8th straight victory

 

[February 10, 2025]  SPRINGFIELD – With a full roster of players that includes previously-injured and previously-ill ones who are getting healthier with each passing day, the Railer Boys Basketball Team 2.0 continued its resurgence with a 43-36 nonconference win at Lanphier on Saturday afternoon.

The LCHS boys basketball team ran its winning streak to seven games when the Railers beat Eisenhower in a 39-36 thriller Friday night.

“They’re really fired up,” Railer head coach Neil Alexander said of his squad following the victory. “I think with everybody coming back and the way that they feel they can finish the year, that’s an important part right now: how we want to finish. We’ve just got to continue to get better.”

The Railers jumped out to a 6-3 lead early in the first quarter, but then Lincoln’s offense went cold. Lanphier scored the last six points of the period to lead 9-6 heading into the second frame.

The Lions picked up where they left off, as Lanphier got the next five points of the game to stretch the lead to 14-6. Lincoln got a conventional three-point play from Gabe Smith and a three-point field goal from Drew Hayes to cut the lead to 14-12, but the Lions reeled off five points of their own to stretch the lead to seven.

Brody Tungate

With 3:44 remaining in the quarter, Brody Tungate sank a layup for the Railers, then on the next play stole the ball and went in for another layup. Hayes hit a field goal before the end of the quarter and Lincoln trailed 19-18 at halftime.

The teams traded baskets to begin the third period. After a dunk by Shaunassey Hatchett, Karson Komnick hit a pair of free throws to keep the game within one point. Gabe Smith hit a jumper to give Lincoln its first lead of the first half at 24-23. One possession later, Hayes hit a field goal to increase the Lincoln lead to 26-23.

The Railers had been hurt by a lack of offense in the third quarters of many of their games prior to their recent run of victories. However, during the recent winning streak, the team has gradually seemed to become more resilient, and such was the case against Lanphier. After Jaiquan Holman hit a three-pointer for Lanphier to knot the score at 26-all, Tungate answered with a trey for the Railers to push the lead back to three at 29-26. Lincoln closed out the period by scoring the last five points of the quarter to take a 34-26 lead into the final stanza.

The fourth quarter had the tense feel of a boxing title fight, as the two squads punched and counterpunched in an effort to best the other team. The Lions inched closer point by point as they got two made free throws each from Holman and Amari Anderson to cut Lincoln’s lead to four points. A Tungate free throw for Lincoln preceded a made layup by Lanphier’s Hatchett to pull the Lions to within three points at 35-32.

The next play took Railer nation on a short rollercoaster ride as Lincoln had trouble handling the increasing Lanphier defensive pressure. When the Railers inbounded the ball following a timeout, Hayes threw a full-court baseball pass to a streaking Tungate, and it looked as if the Railers would get a breakaway basket on a layup. Tungate, however, was followed by Lanphier’s Hatchett. Hatchett blocked the layup, and it appeared Lincoln missed a golden opportunity to score.

Frank Sanders

It may have appeared that way to many, but not to Railer Frank Sanders. Sanders sprinted downcourt as the play developed, and as the blocked basketball came down, Sanders put himself in position to rebound the ball and hit the putback shot for a pair of points for the Railers to increase the lead to 37-32 with 1:22 remaining in the game.

Soriano Hayes hit a jumper to cut the lead back to three points, but the Railers hit six of eight free throws down the stretch to ice the game. Soriano hit another field goal for Lanphier in the midst of the Railer free throws to make the final score 43-36 in favor of Lincoln.

Tungate led Lincoln with 14 points while Karson Komnick added eight. Hayes and Smith tallied seven apiece and Sanders had six. Brady Miller sank a free throw for one point.

Shaunassey Hatchett led Lanphier with 14 points.

Alexander said he was pleased with the performance of his team, but he added that the uncertain health of his roster from game to game has prevented the team from finding steady rotations of players for particular situations or parts of games.

“We’ve got to figure out our rotation,” he said. “Our rotation’s not very good. There’s certain things you’ve got to do. There’s guys that play better with certain guys on the floor. It’s just different situations that we’ve got to come up with.

“We’re on a roll; we’re going to continue what we’ve got to do to win a basketball game.”

While the Railers were of course happy with the win, the victory unfortunately did not help them in the Central State 8 Conference standings. With the CS8 having 11 member schools, teams do not mandatorily play each other twice during the season. Each team is required to play every other team once. If two teams choose to play a second game against each other, the results of that game do not count in the CS8 conference standings. Lanphier beat Lincoln back on January 17 by the score of 44-30, so the results of that game earlier in the season are the ones that get counted as part of the teams’ conference records.

Lincoln is now 18-8 overall, while Lanphier falls to 19-10 for the season. In the Central State 8, Lanphier holds a 6-3 mark while Lincoln is 5-4.

Lincoln hosts Bloomington in a nonconference contest Monday night before traveling to Sacred Heart-Griffin on Tuesday evening for another nonconference game. The Railers beat SH-G in the 2024 Capital City Showcase 56-35 on December 7.

[Loyd Kirby]