Lincoln Land – 69
Rend Lake – 79
Lincoln Land returned home to take on NJCAA D2 Region 24 opponent Rend Lake and fell off late and eventually lost 79-69 to the Warriors.
Lincoln Land came into the evening needing to get a win to keep pace with most of the other region opponents and they came out fairly strong. The Loggers were able to keep pace with Rend Lake for the first 10 minutes of the game and led 28-26, but unfortunately struggled for just long enough for Rend Lake to take the lead and build it up to 13. Lincoln Land was able to level their play out and kept the deficit at a minimal as they went into half trailing 42-31. Mistakes hurt Lincoln Land as they allowed most of Rend Lake's points in the first half on transition baskets or free throws.
The Loggers came out impassioned in the second half and slowly chipped into the lead. 10:00 into the half the Loggers found themselves trailing by only 4 and forced Rend Lake to use a timeout. Out of the timeout Lincoln Land was able to score on three straight possessions as freshman Trace Gentry knocked in a three, followed by a layup by freshman D'Aaron Owens, and then another three by Gentry gave Lincoln Land their first lead in 20:00 minutes as they were up 54-52. The game went back and forth as both teams took the lead multiples times. Lincoln Land found themselves up 61-60 with 3:25 left. Over the next 2 minutes Rend Lake went on a 12-0 run that put the Loggers in too big of a deficit to get back in it. Lincoln Land had a few unforced turnovers and missed some open shots, that helped fuel the Warriors run.
Every Logger who played, with the exception of one, scored. Lincoln Land was led in scoring by freshman Trace Gentry who had 17 points including 5 threes. Freshman Jerrid Cosby ended with 10 for the second game in a row and sophomore Alex Portwood had 10 as well.
"We put ourselves in a chance to win and that is more than we have in a couple of our losses this year, however, when it was crunch time we beat ourselves with some silly errors including two times we just threw the ball out of bounds. If we can avoid these stretches of letting other teams get on runs on us we can play and compete with anyone, I believe that," stated Head Coach Chad Jones following the loss.
The Loggers are now 14-9, 1-4 in the MWAC.
Lincoln Land has a small break as they stay home to continue conference play against ICC, who the Loggers lost to earlier in the season.
