Lincoln Land – 98
North Central Missouri College – 93
 
Lincoln Land came in to tonight looking to revenge an early season 73-70 loss to the Pirates of North Central Missouri and were able to hold on and came away victorious 98-93.
 

Lincoln Land has struggled with the Pirates as they have lost 5 of 5 in the last three seasons, including a few losses by only a few points. Tonight, they finally got over the hump and were victorious. The first half Lincoln Land slowly built up a lead to go up 28-21. North Central was able in three possessions to cut that lead to zero. For the rest of the half it was a back and forth affair. At half it was all tied at 40.
 
North Central came out hot in the second half and quickly raced out to a 8 point lead, 51-43.  Lincoln Land scored on four straight possessions including two threes from freshman Trace Gentry and sophomore Harold Robertson. Gentry caught fire and ended with 18 points, with four threes, all in the last 15:00 of the game. Lincoln Land and North Central continued to trade buckets until Lincoln Land took their final lead of the game with 3:43 left on a three from freshman D'Aaron Owens. In the final minutes of the game, North Central cut the Logger's lead to five or less four times, but never got closer than three. Freshman D'Aaron Owens made two free throws with 11 seconds left to put the Loggers up by the final of 98-93.
 
"Tonight was a great win for us. We have struggled to finish games against these guys and tonight we finally did. The incredible part is that I do not feel like we played exceptionally well, but we scored 98 points! I feel like we took care of the ball fairly well tonight, but missed a ton of open shots. All in all our guys made the plays they had to to win the game. Great win and it sets up an even bigger game next Saturday," stated Head Coach Chad Jones following the victory.
 
Lincoln Land was led in scoring by sophomore Alex Portwood who had a game high 20 points while pulling in a team high 6 rebounds as well in 31 minutes. Other than Portwood the Loggers were carried in scoring by freshman, Trace Gentry and D'Aaron Owens who had 18 each and Alex Kramer finished with 10. One thing that sealed the victory for the Loggers was clutch free throw shooting who made 24 of 29 in the game including 11 for 12 in the last two minutes of the game.
 
Lincoln Land has a week off for finals before they travel next Saturday to Illinois Valley Community College who currently is ranked #20 in the NJCAA Division 2 rankings.