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 [January 29, 2025]
The Lincoln Lady Railers played an exceptional ballgame on
the road Tuesday night but fell just shy of a victory in overtime to
the Springfield Senators. The two teams were tied 64-64 in
regulation. It was the Senators winning those final four minutes in
overtime and taking the 77-72 Central State Eight win.
Once again four Lady Railers reached double-figures.
Makinley Knapp led the team with 23 points. Mia Clark was
outstanding with 20 points. Grace Schneider and Piper Whiteman each
scored 11 points.
Lincoln was nearly perfect shooting free throws, going 23-for-24
from the line.
Springfield was led by Aniyah Rhinehouse with 30 points.
Lincoln is now 12-10 overall and 5-3 in the Central State Eight
Conference.
Springfield is 14-10 overall and 8-2 in the conference.
First quarter
Mia Clark put the Lady Railers up 2-0 before the Senators surged to
a 7-2 lead. Lincoln would have to play catch up the rest of the
quarter. Makinley Knapp and Clark combined to trim the lead to 9-8
but after a handful of buckets from the Senators and just one field
goal from Piper Whiteman, Springfield was on top 17-10. Clark set
the score at 17-13 with her three-point basket and that was how the
quarter ended.
Second quarter
The two teams thought it best to shuffle the lead in the second
quarter. Lincoln captured leads of 21-20 and 24-23. Whiteman’s three
from the top of the key gave Lincoln that first lead of the quarter.
Then Knapp banked in a beautiful hook shot to make the score 24-23.
A 7-0 run by the Senators decimated Lincoln’s lead. But with Grace
Schneider making two free throws and Mesa McCloud making a lot of
noise with her three-pointer ahead of the buzzer, Lincoln was down
just 32-29 at the half.
Third quarter
Lincoln was back in business in the third quarter as Clark put the
team in front with four fast points. Clark’s basket to earn the
33-32 lead was off a really great assist from Schneider. Knapp got
on a roll next and she wowed the crowd and the Lincoln bench with a
corner three. Way to go, Makinley! Seconds later she dropped in two
more points and Lincoln was enjoying a 38-34 lead. The Senators
quickly turned the votes, well buckets in this case, their
direction. A 10-0 run put Springfield back on top 44-38. Lincoln’s
big three on the court, who have the ability to move bodies out of
their way, put the next six points on the board. In case you were
guessing, that was Knapp, Whiteman and Clark who used their
persuasion to tie the game 44-44. Whiteman and Clark were actually
fouled in the paint and made their free throws but hey, every point
was important. With under a minute to go the Senators got two quick
buckets and with Lincoln finishing the quarter with a lob into Knapp
that she made good on, the Senators lead was a slim and trim 48-46.
Fourth quarter
The Senators kept pushing the Lady Railers away in the fourth
quarter and for a while it looked like Lincoln was going to run out
of time. Down 59-56 with about ninety seconds left to play, Knapp
was working hard on defense and she blocked a Senators shot and her
adrenaline was still rushing when she sank a shot at Lincoln’s end
to make the score 59-58. A big time move there by Knapp. With just
under a minute to go it was Clark with the steal at half court.
Clark took the layup herself and she was hammered by one of the
Senators on defense. Clark stepped to the free throw line to sink
both shots and put the Lady Railers on top 60-59.
[to top of second column] |
After the Senators missed their next opportunity to score, Clark
pulled down the rebound. Following a timeout, Whiteman was fouled on
the inbounds and with Lincoln in the bonus, she would go on to sink
two shots and extend the lead to 62-59. The Senators missed another
scoring opportunity and this time it was Schneider on the rebound,
getting fouled quickly. Schneider was not even breaking a sweat at
the line, dropping both shots through the net, stretching the lead
to 64-59.
But with less than twenty seconds left in regulation, the Senators'
Aniyah Rhinehouse scored in the lane and her team got the ball back
a second later when someone knocked Schneider down following the
inbounds. With 5.6 seconds left Abigail Malit was fouled shooting a
three. Malit only made one of the three shots but as Knapp pulled
down the rebound she was shoved and called for traveling with 1.9
seconds left. The Senators got possession of the ball. Ariana
Williams made the game-tying shot just ahead of the buzzer. A simple
basket in the paint that tied the score 64-64.
Those last twenty seconds of the game were all spent at the Senators
end of the court and Lincoln definitely took some hard knocks as
they lost the lead.
Overtime
Overtime started a new ballgame with 4:00 on the clock. Lincoln
jumped in front 68-66 with Schneider and Knapp scoring. But after
Malit, who is just a freshman, hit a three the Senators forged ahead
69-68 and they refused to give up the lead after that. For the
remaining two minutes and fifty seconds of overtime, the Lady
Railers got close but could never take the lead. Clark’s three right
around the one minute mark would bring Lincoln to within a point but
turnovers, fouls, and free throws would dictate the rest of the
game.
When it was all said and done, Lincoln took the 77-72 loss.
It was a tough battle and one that Lincoln players should not hang
their heads about. Nobody gave up and everybody fought til the end.
The last couple of weeks the Lady Railers have seen a lot of
improvement.
Time to start a new winning streak on Friday night, when the ladies
host Taylorville. The JV game will start at 5:30 p.m. and the
Varsity will start at 7:00 p.m.
In the JV game Springfield beat Lincoln 34-28.
Emma Hutchison led the JV team with 13 points.
Varsity scoring
Lincoln 72
Knapp 23
Clark 20
Schneider 11
Whiteman 11
Holmes 4
McCloud 3
Springfield 77
Rhinehouse 30
Malit 19
Williams 10
Leininger 10
Toran 6
Townsend 2
JV scoring
Lincoln 28
Hutchison 13
Chen 8
Hinton 3
Eskra 2
Gilbert 2
Springfield 34
Ayilisunga 11
Holman 10
Foster 7
Auble 4
Calhoun 2
[Teena Lowery] |
