Springfield, IL -

LLCC – 68
St. Louis Community College - 62
 
Lincoln Land men's basketball won their second in a row by defeating the Arches of St. Louis Community College 68-62.
 
The Loggers came out shooting hot by draining their first three three pointers of the game and things looked like they'd go the Loggers way. However, shortly after that the Loggers went cold for a stretch and St. Louis capitalized by racing out to a 21-13 lead with 11:00 left in the half. The Loggers were able to close the half strong with a 25-9 run and take a 38-30 lead in to half.
 
Lincoln Land was able to hold onto the lead for most of the second half, but the Arches slowly chipped away and took a one point lead with 2:23 left in the game, 62-61.  That was the last basket of the game for St. Louis. Lincoln Land scored the last 7 points of the game on an and-one bucket by sophomore Eddie Longmeyer followed by two made free throws by freshmen Harold Robertson and Alex Portwood to close the game.
 
Longmeyer led all scorers with 19, while also pulling down 5 rebounds and handing out 4 assists. Sophomore Marshall Corbin had one of his best games of the year by scoring 13 and gathering a team high 6 rebounds. Freshman Alex Portwood added 14 points and shared out 5 assists. One of the reasons for LLCC's success was their ability to share the ball, Lincoln Land had 18 assists on 23 baskets.
 
"We had another close game and again we were able to do what we needed to win. We made some foolish mistakes to put ourselves in a situation where we had to be near perfect down the stretch, but luckily we were. We have a huge game against a region opponent, Rend Lake, next Tuesday that we have to be better," reflected Head Coach Chad Jones.
 
Lincoln Land improves to 7-3 and stays at home to take on Rend Lake, a region opponent with tournament seeding implications, Tuesday night in Springfield.


Sophomore Marshall Corbin