Lincoln Land - 62
Lewis and Clark - 49
The Lincoln Land Loggers men's basketball team got their first conference win of the year in a 62-49 victory over the Trailblazers of Lewis and Clark.Â
Lincoln Land has struggled to score the ball all season and tonight was a highlight of that issue. The Loggers started the contest with 5 points in the first few minutes, but then Lincoln Land went over 8:00 without a score. The Loggers defense stepped up during that stretch only allowing the Trailblazers to build a lead of 12 points. Once that bucket broke the scoreless streak, LLCC was able to play more in the flow of the game and went in to half trailing by 9 at 28-19.Â
The game could be characterized as both a come back, because the Loggers trailed, and at the same time a dominant win because of how the second half played out. In the first 10:00 of the second half Lincoln Land rattled off a 23-4 run. The Loggers took less than 5:00 to jump in front of the Trailblazers and held Lewis and Clark to a nearly 7:00 scoring drought of their own. Lincoln Land got up by double digits and then held the lead around that 10 point mark before Lewis and Clark put together their last real threat getting to within 5 at 39-45. Lincoln Land found their defensive and offensive stride together for a stretch and put together a 13-3 run and got up as many as 16 on their way to victory. The Lewis and Clark offense was only able to muster 21 second half points, 6 of which came in the closing minute of the game. As the conclusion Lincoln Land put together a great second half to take the 62-49 Mid-West Athletic Conference victory.
The performance of the night came from freshman Michael Tyler who had a career high 17 points, a career and game high 13 rebounds, and a career high 7 blocks. Sophomore Camden Nelson strengthened his position as the leading Logger scorer with a game high 19. Two other notable performances were freshman Gus McCrary with 10 boards and freshmen AJ Tillman with a stat stuffing game of 8 points, 6 boards, and a game high 5 assists.Â
Lincoln Land improves to 3-12 on the season, 1-1 in MWAC conference play. Lincoln Land is now on a three game home winning streak. They will take a week off and play next Wednesday in East Peoria against Illinois Central College.