November 26, 2013

The defending national Champ Rend Lake Warriors, and current #1 nationally ranked team, came into Cass Gymnasium to take on the home Lincoln Land Loggers. Lincoln Land held with Rend Lake until about 5:00 minutes to go before half and the Warriors began to pull away. Rend Lake used an 8/12 (66.7%) shooting effort from three to take a 14 point lead in to halftime.

Rend Lake pushed out the lead to a game high 24 points with 12:00 left, but the Loggers were able to chip away and cut the deficit to 11. After a missed three point attempt by the Loggers, Rend Lake capitalized with a bucket and a foul on the other end. Rend Lake missed the free throw, but were able to secure the offensive rebound and put in a bucket to push the lead back to 15. From that point on, the Loggers were unable to get much closer the rest of the way. Rend Lake knocked in their free throws down the stretch and secured the 82-65 victory. The Warriors outrebounded the Loggers by 24 (49-25) and shot better from the floor and free throw line. Jeril Taylor from Rend Lake led all scorers with 20 points and pulled down game high 14 rebounds.

"We improved on some things, but when you give up 19 offensive rebounds and get outrebounded by such a high margin it is going to be tough to win, especially against the #1 team in the country. We had a lot of foolish mistakes that led to them getting points and that are what cost us the victory," stated Coach Chad Jones.

The Loggers drop to 4-5 on the season. The Loggers will take a few days off for Thanksgiving and return home next Tuesday, December 3^rd, when Illinois Valley Community College comes to town.

The Loggers were led in scoring by freshman Kendall Davis who had 15. Season leading scorer sophomore Marcus Graham added 14.