The Lincoln Land men's basketball team took down conference opponent Illinois Central College 65-59.
 
Lincoln Land was able to pull out the victory, but their last three games have followed the same mold of slow starts. Lincoln Land found themselves down 10 in the first half, but were able to cut the lead to 3 before the half. Their first possession of the second half Eddie Longmeyer tied the game on a three and from there the Loggers and Cougars of ICC went back and forth for the next fifteen minutes. The game saw a total of 11 lead changes and 8 ties, most of which took place over this period. Lincoln Land was able to get a bucket from sophomore Shaq Edwards with just under 6 minutes left that gave Lincoln Land the lead, which they held on to for the rest of the game. With just over 2:00 left the Loggers took their biggest lead of the game at 7. A few free throws by both teams in the last few minutes pushed the score out to the final of 65-59.
 
Lincoln Land did get outrebounded by 7 and gave up 17 offensive rebounds which led to 16 second chance points for ICC. The advantage for the Loggers was shooting. They outshot the Cougars from the field and held ICC to 1/14 from three point range. Lincoln Land's overall defense was key in the win. The Loggers forced 14 turnovers and pulled in 6 steals.
 
The Loggers were led by sophomore Eddie Longmeyer who had a team high 26. Longmeyer has scored 55 points over the last two games. He also accounted for a game high 5 assists in just under 38:00 of play. Freshman Alex Portwood was the Loggers second leading scorer with 14. Freshman Harold Robertson helped the Loggers with 12 points. The big spark in the game was return of sophomore Shaq Edwards who has struggled with multiple injuries throughout the year, who came off the bench in his first game back with an excellent late production to score 9 points and helping to secure the win.
 
"ICC made us play some ugly basketball for a lot of the game. We were able to hone in and take care of business late. We have to cut out the early leads we give up and we will be in great shape. All in all, we are 2-1 in the conference and I am happy with that. We don't have long to celebrate though because we take on a tough Parkland team Wednesday," stated Chad Jones, Head Coach.
 
Lincoln Land moves to 13-9 on the year and 2-1 and into a first place tie in the conference. The Loggers travel to Parkland, who also sits at 2-1, on Wednesday to see who came remain in first place in the conference.