Railer boys basketball team runs winning streak to 9 games with 54-28 win over Bloomington

 

[February 11, 2025]  LINCOLN -- The Railer boys basketball team stretched its winning streak to nine in a row with a 54-28 nonconference victory over Bloomington.

Frank Sanders led all scorers with 20 points on nine-of-11 shooting from the field. The senior big man also connected on two of three free throws, grabbed six rebounds and blocked two shots.

If the Railers were feeling run down from playing three games over the last four days, they didn’t show it. Even though Bloomington entered the contest with only one win on the season, Coach Alexander said he knew better than to let his squad take their opponent lightly.

“We played Thursday-Friday Saturday and then we didn’t do anything for a day,” Alexander said. “And then we didn’t have school today, and I was worried about tonight. But the kids came out and did a pretty good job.”

The 28 points by Bloomington was the lowest total the Railer defense has allowed in a game all season, eclipsing the 29-point total Lincoln allowed Glenwood in the 36-29 Railer win over the Titans to begin the four-games-in-five-days stretch of their schedule that ends tomorrow night at Sacred Heart-Griffin.

With a full roster back, Alexander said he is now starting to see flashes of how good he thought this team could be.

“I really thought that we would’ve had a great, great year,” Alexander said. “And then we had all the injuries and things. But we can finish it off and make things happen and do what our goals were. They’re still within reach, so we’ll keep working towards them.”

Frank Sanders

Sanders is a tough matchup for many Railer opponents because of his size and his relative quickness. Lincoln took advantage of that early as Sanders scored the first three baskets for LCHS to give the Railers a 6-0 lead.

Bloomington got a three-pointer from Maddox McSwain and a field goal from Evan Reed to pull to within a point, but Lincoln then reeled off 18 consecutive points, taking the score from 6-5 with 3:30 left in the first quarter to 24-5 with three minutes remaining in the first half. The outburst of points helped the Railers build a 31-9 halftime advantage.

The second half was more competitive, as Lincoln outscored the Purple Raiders 15-12 in the third quarter and 8-7 in the final period. But the 20-plus point deficit was too much for Bloomington to overcome and Lincoln won 54-28.

Karson Komnick

In addition to Sanders, Karson Komnick also scored in double figures for the Railers with 14 points. Brody Tungate added eight points, Blake Horn tallied five points, Drew Hayes contributed three points and Brady Miller and Preston Short each had two points.

Bloomington was led by Maddox McSwain with 12 points.

The nonconference victory over Bloomington was Lincoln’s ninth in a row. The win moves Lincoln’s overall record to 19-8; the Railers complete the grueling four-games-in-five-days portion of their schedule Tuesday when Lincoln travels to Springfield to face Sacred Heart-Griffin in a nonconference contest. Lincoln defeated SH-G 56-35 back on December 7th.

Alexander said that the Tuesday game against the Cyclones will have implications for postseason seedings, scheduled to be released by the IHSA on February 14 at 4 PM.

“I think tomorrow’s a really, really important game,” Alexander said of the February 11 contest at Sacred Heart-Griffin. “I think we’ve put ourselves in the picture to be discussed as a No. 1 seed, where 10 days ago I thought we’d be a play-in game.

“Tomorrow night’s game will be a good one. We’ve gone back through and looked at the tape, and we played an awesome game at the convention center when we played them down there.”

Tipoff for the Tuesday night game at SH-G is scheduled for 7 o’clock.

[Loyd Kirby]