The Lincoln Land men's basketball team closed out the first half of their season Thursday evening at home against Rend Lake College, but unfortunately fell 101-80.

Lincoln Land came into the evening dealing with a slew of injuries and illness that put them at only 7 available players, the starting 5 for the Loggers all played over 30:00 on the evening. Rend Lake was able to jump out to a fairly early double digit lead and hold that for the rest of the way. Lincoln Land trailed by as many as 24 in the first half and went into the half break trailing 50-28. The Warriors of Rend Lake were able to build that lead up over 30 at times in the second half. Lincoln Land was able to get their deficit back below 20, but never any closer. Lincoln Land's issue on the evening stemmed from their inability to put multiple defensive stops in a row and stopped Rend Lake on less than half of their possessions. Rend Lake out-shot Lincoln Land in every statistical category and out-rebounded the Loggers by 14, while pulling down 20 offensive rebounds. 

Although Lincoln Land struggled to shot well at times, points came at a higher clip than average for the Loggers. Leading scorer freshmen Keon Jones ended with a game high 31 points, while filling his stat sheet with 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Freshmen Darius Brewington (16 and 11) and sophomore Benji Eaker (11 and 11) pulled in team highs in rebounds, while each reaching a double-double. Freshmen Jered Cain got a career high 14 on the evening. 

Lincoln Land closed out the first half of their season at 2-12 and will take a break until January 4th when they return to Cass Gymnasium to take on Lake Land Community College.