Lincoln Land - 76
Danville Area Community College - 67
The Lincoln Land men's basketball team closed out their home season defeating Danville Area Community College 76-67 in their final game at Cass Gymnasium this season.
The Loggers never trailed on their way to the victory. They were able to race out to an early 17-4 lead over the Jaguars in the first 7-8 minutes of the game. Danville was able to make a run of their own and got the game to 23-22 with the Loggers still holding the advantage. That proved to be the closest DACC would get the rest of the way. Lincoln Land closed the half on a 11-2 run and led 34-24.
Lincoln Land continued to pull away in once the second half got underway and with 10:41 left, LLCC held a 55-31 advantage. That 24 point difference was the furthest the Loggers pulled away in the game. The last 10:00 Danville slowly and consistency closed in on the Loggers. With :34 left Lincoln Land held only a 6 point advantage. Danville early in the contest began playing aggressively and fouling the Loggers, who failed to put the game away at the line. Although LLCC ended 20/27 from the free stripe,6 of the 7 of those misses were in the final 6 minutes of the game. Because of that, and a few turnovers and shots allowed Danville to begin to make Lincoln Land nervous. However, sophomore Nic Hagel drove to the basket and got 2 of his career high 24 points on an and-one bucket to put the game away for good.
Only 6 Loggers scored on the evening and majority of the scoring came from two sophomores, Nic Hagel - a career high 24, and Jake Pennell with a game high 26, including going 10/12 from the line to help put the game away. Freshman Benji Eaker ended with 10, and a game high 9 boards, while sophomore Logan Clayton added 9.
LLCC is now 5-22 on the season and are 2-5 in Mid-West Athletic Conference play. The win guaranteed the Loggers will play at ICC next Wednesday for the first round of NJCAA Region 24 post-season play. The Loggers will also head up to East Peoria on Saturday to take on the Cougars of ICC.
