The Logger men's basketball team got a big overtime win against Harry S. Truman College, 72-69.

Back in December, Lincoln Land closed the first semester of the season by traveling to Chicago and suffering a loss at the hands of Harry S. Truman, 73-66. The Loggers were able to avenge that loss on Thursday evening. 

The first half was not necessarily pretty for either team. The Loggers struggled immensely from the three point line all evening and that showed in the first half when they went 1/13 from behind the arc. The Falcons of Truman College pulled in 4 offensive rebounds, and turned all four into second chance points. Lincoln Land committed 9 of their 13 turnovers in the first half, worst of which happened in the last two minutes of the half which allowed Truman to go on an 8-0 to close the half as they went from down 4 to holding a small 2 point lead at the break, 37-35. 

LLCC were able to tie the game at 41 early in the second half, but from that point on, Truman began to take command of the game. Truman slowly and methodically began pulling away from the Loggers and grew that lead as high as 11 with under 10:00 to play. Things still looked dim for Lincoln Land when they found themselves trailing 60-50 with just under 5:00 to go. The Loggers continued to scramble defensively and were able to chip away at the deficit. However, with :45 remaining LLCC still trailed by 4. Sophomore Logan Clayton got a steal off of the in-bound pass and immediately turned it into 2 points. Trying to inbound on the next possession, Truman again turned the ball over to LLCC, who got two open three pointers and a chance to take the lead, but neither went in. Forced to foul on the rebound and watching Truman knock in two free throws, again the Loggers were down 4, now with :14 left. Clayton charged right down the floor on the next possession and got a layup to get the score to 66-64 with :09 left. On the inbound the Flacons threw the pass off of the gym ceiling and LLCC got the ball underneath out of bounds with a chance to tie. Again, two Logger shots went off the rim, but a jump ball with .3 seconds left gave LLCC one last chance to tie. Clayton got the ball over a defender and sophomore DJ Doolin tipped the ball up as time expired. The ball bounced a total of five times on the rim before it went in to send the game to overtime. The Loggers closed on a 16-6 run over the last 4:22 of regulation.

In OT a big three pointer by freshman Benji Eaker had the Loggers feeling close to the victory after they gained their first lead since the first half. LLCC unfortunately gave up an offensive rebound on a missed three, which allowed Truman another shot at it and they tied the game up at 69. Freshman Jordan Brooks, who put together one of his best games of the season, got a runner late in the shot clock to go down and LLCC took their final lead of the night. LLCC got a huge defensive stop and sophomore Jake Pennell knocked in a free throw to push the score to 72-69 with 2 seconds remaining in the game. Truman was unable to get a shot off and the Loggers came away with the victory. 

LLCC got balanced scoring as all but one Logger scored and the scoring ranged from 6-14 points. Clayton led LLCC in scoring with one of his best recent outputs as he had 14. He also pulled down 5 rebounds and dished out 3 assists. Freshman Benji Eaker added 13, Brooks tallied 12, and Pennell ended with 11. Pennell also gathered in 10 rebounds and forced the jump ball at the very end of the regulation. One of the most impactful and important lines of the night came from Freshman TJ Gaines who while scoring 8, got 15 total rebounds, 10 of which were offensive. 6 of those offensive rebounds led to points for LLCC. The team stat that gave Lincoln Land the victory was that they out rebounded Truman 45-34 and were able to get up 17 more shots from the field, and LLCC needed every one of those attempts. 

Lincoln Land (3-15) gets the victory at a good time as they now have momentum going in to the conference season as they stay at home and take on John Wood Saturday afternoon.