Railer win streak reaches 10 as Lincoln gets 20th win of the season in defeating Sacred Heart-Griffin 51-37

 

[February 12, 2025]  SPRINGFIELD -- The Railer boys basketball team achieved a few things in its 51-37 nonconference win at Sacred Heart-Griffin on Tuesday against the Cyclones.

Lincoln came into the contest with a 19-8 overall record, so the win gave the Railers 20 victories on the season.

In addition, LCHS entered the game against SH-G having won its last nine contests, so defeating the Cyclones gave Lincoln 10 wins in a row.

The victory also makes it 25 seasons that LCHS head coach Neil Alexander has won at least 20 games in a season with the Railers.

But perhaps above all else, the game brings to a close a crazy portion of the schedule for the Railers. Due to a couple rescheduled games, Lincoln wound up playing five games in six days. Adding to the frenzy was the fact that the stretch of games occurred during the last few days when coaches were filling out their seedings for postseason play; if Lincoln’s season went into a nosedive with too many losses, those results could have dire consequences for Lincoln when it came to their draw in the postseason tournament.

“The kids have had a heck of a seven-day run,” Alexander said. “We feel that we should have a No. 1 seed, but I don’t get to vote for us.”

Given the iffy health of the squad this season and the fact that several players are not back to full strength while recovering from illness or injury, the stretch of games was cause for concern for Alexander. If the Railers lost a player or two, or if some of the team members on the road to recovery had setbacks, how would the Railers fare?

As it turned out, the team fared quite well, as Lincoln won all five games during that stretch, as well as the five previous ones to put together a 10-game winning streak, the team’s first such stream since winning 10 consecutive contests from November 25 through December 28 in 2022.

Head Coach Neil Alexander

“We played some good competition in those five days, and this one was a good one also” Alexander said of Sacred Heart-Griffin. “You don’t get better if you don’t play good teams, and we want good competition and we want challenged.”

How is it the Railers turned their season around? In a word: defense. Overall this season, LCHS has given up an average of 41.2 points per game. However, during the 10-game stretch of victories, the Railers have clamped down on the opposition, only allowing an average of 33.3 points per contest, almost eight points less than their opponents.

During the past 10 games, the Railers have tied or lowered their mark for the fewest points allowed in a game this season. In its second game of the season, Lincoln gave up 33 points in beating Belleville West 37-33. That was the low-water mark for the Railers until they held U-High to 32 points in the first game of Lincoln’s 10-game winning streak. Three games later, LCHS lowered the mark to 30 points when the Railers allowed 30 in victories over Mattoon and Taylorville. The following game was against Glenwood; Lincoln-Glenwood games are traditionally low scoring contests, and the 2025 edition fell into that category, as the Railers allowed only 29 points the Titans while Lincoln scored 36. Jump ahead three games in the schedule to February 11, and the Railer defense clamped down against Bloomington, allowing only 28 points to the Purple Raiders.

Against Sacred Heart-Griffin, Lincoln trailed 11-10 at the end of the first quarter. The Railers went to their lob play in the second quarter, and Karson Komnick found Drew Hayes for an easy basket to give Lincoln a 12-11 lead. The Railers went on to outscore SH-G 13-6 in the frame, the last three points coming on a buzzer-beating trey by Brody Tungate to give Lincoln a 23-17 halftime advantage.

Gabe Smith

Following intermission, the teams volleyed points back and forth with Lincoln maintaining a lead throughout the third quarter. Gabe Smith powered the Railers’ third-quarter offense with seven points in the stanza; Lincoln led 39-26 heading into the final period.

The teams generally maintained the same point differential through the first part of the final frame, until the “Rally Toddler” made his presence known. Baseball fans may recall in 2011 when the St. Louis Cardinals adopted a “rally squirrel” as an unofficial mascot during the playoffs after the critter ran onto the field during playoff games. At SH-G Tuesday, the Cyclones were trailing by 14 points as play was about resume when a toddler wandered onto the court. The Cyclones were about to take the ball out of bounds, but the referee delayed play until the child was safely off the court and reunited with his party. But even though he was no longer physically present on the court, the powers of the Rally Toddler seemed to inspire the Cyclones, and SH-G’s defense shut Lincoln down for the next few minutes while the Cyclone offense hit its stide and cut the Railer lead to eight points.

Unfortunately for the Cyclone faithful, the magic of the Rally Toddler seemed to run out at that point, as Lincoln went on an 8-0 run to put the game out of reach, and the Railers pick up the victory by the score of 51-37.

Karson Komnick

Karson Komnick led the Railers with 19 points. Drew Hayes and Brody Tungate each added 9 while Gabe Smith tallied 7 points for Lincoln.
 

Next up on the schedule, the Railers travel to Decatur on Valentine’s Day to take on Central State 8 Champion Decatur MacArthur.

The game will count in the CS8 standings, although MacArthur clinched the conference title last week. Tip off for the game is slated for 7 PM.

[Loyd Kirby]