Lincoln Land Community College - 64

Lincoln College - 76

Despite a furious second half comeback by Lincoln Land the Lynx of Lincoln College pulled away late to defeat Lincoln Land, 76-64.

Going in to half Lincoln Land found themselves down 30-20. Lincoln Land had 13 first half turnovers, one of their highest totals of the year, shot under 30% from the field, and struggled to score as they were held to 20 points. Their leading scorer, and one of the top scorers in the conference, Sophomore D'Aaron Owens went in to half with only two points. All of those signs pointed to disaster for the Loggers. With all of that in mind, Lincoln Land felt like they were still in pretty good shape. The Loggers had closed on a 10-2 run, until they let an easy final bucket to the Lynx right before the half. Lincoln College scored 22 points in the first 9:00 of the game, but Lincoln Land was able to hold the Lynx to 8 for the rest of the half. A usual issue for Lincoln Land is rebounding, but the Loggers went into half holding a 24-18 advantage on the board, including 12 offensive rebounds. 

Those things did not correct themselves totally in the second half as Lincoln Land found themselves down by a game high 15 early in the second half. Although Lincoln Land pulled in 6 second half offensive boards they only turned those into 4 second half points and committed 8 second half turnovers. Those turnovers turned into 28 points for Lincoln College on the night. The Loggers began chipping away and continued to make a few small scoring runs to chop into the Lynx advantage. Lincoln Land also received the short end of nearly every bounce or bad break on the night. Multiple occasions they were able to force misses by the Lynx, but an airball or a ball batted by two Loggers, would find itself in the hands of a Lincoln College player. On another occasion, they had a steal bounce of a different Loggers leg and make its way out of bounds to give possession back to Lincoln College. The breaks would just not go Lincoln Land's way all night. 

Lincoln Land worked their way all the way down to 3 with about 8:30 to go in the game. Lincoln responded by pushing their advantage out to near double digits. The Loggers again chipped in to their deficit to cut it to a two possession game and trailing 61-57. Lincoln College scored on their next possession and then forced back to back Logger turnovers that turned into easy fast break baskets and pushed the lead back out. Lincoln Land got a few late scores and Lincoln made their free throws and did not turn the ball over to allow the Loggers to sneak back in to the game. 

Thinking about the loss Head Coach Chad Jones commented, "Tonight was the rebounding, and minus the first 10 minutes of the game, effort we have needed all year. Tonight was a big step in the right direction and we just made too many foolish junior high mistakes taking care of the ball tonight to give ourselves a chance to win. Tonight does feel like a decent loss, but this was the type of loss we needed earlier in the season to hopefully jump start us in the right way. This late, every loss stings, especially when yet again we were right in the game and let it slip away." 

Sophomore D'Aaron Owens recovered from a bad scoring first half to finish with a team high 16. Owens also pulled in 6 rebounds, had 3 assists, and got 2 steals. Freshman Nic Hagel ended the game in double digits with 10 and he also recovered a game high 8 rebounds. The Loggers did receive balanced scoring as every Logger who played, with the exception of one, scored on the evening. 

Lincoln Land falls to a 11-16 on the season and 0-9 in the MWAC. They close the regular season on the road in Champaign to take on conference leader Parkland College.