The Lincoln Land men's basketball team kicked off their Mid-West Athletic Conference season on the road against Illinois Central College and fell 78-64.
 
Lincoln Land had a slow start that they were unable to overcome. The Cougars of Illinois Central raced out to an early 21-5 lead as the Loggers came out completely flat.
Freshman Trace Gentry subbed in and knocked down two threes that helped push the Loggers deficit down to 6. However, that was as close as they'd get in the first half and Lincoln Land went in to the break trailing 41-31.
 
The start of the second half went similar to the start of the game as the Cougars shot their lead right back out to 16. Again Lincoln Land fought their way back and trailed by only 5, their lowest deficit since 1:35 into the game. Again the Loggers were unable to close in anymore than that. For most of the rest of the game Lincoln Land trailed by less than 10, but got stuck at that 5 point mark a few more times. Late threes by Illinois Central College helped push the lead back out and Lincoln Land eventually fell by the final of 78-64.
 
Rebounding hurt the Loggers as they gave up 10 offensive rebounds, most of which turned in to points for the Cougars. Adding to that Lincoln Land struggled to take care of the ball as they turned it over 20 times.
 
Coach Chad Jones commented following the game, "We planned all week for what they were going to do to us and yet we still came out flat and looked unprepared. That was disappointing. Once we got going we played alright, but just came out flat. We can't have those stretches if we want to be successful in this conference."
 
Lincoln Land was led by sophomore Alex Portwood who had 14 points. Freshmen D'Aaron Owens and Trace Gentry were also in double digits with 13 and 11 respectively.
 
The Loggers now sit at 13-5 on the season and 0-1 in MWAC play. They continue Conference play Wednesday at home in Cass Gymnasium against John Wood Community College