The Lincoln Land Loggers men's basketball team kicked off their 2025-2026 campaign with a tight and thrilling 82-80 overtime victory over Rock Valley College!
 
Rock Valley (1-2) came in to Saturday afternoon's game having already played two games, an advantage that did worry Lincoln Land coming in. However, the Loggers were quick to adjust even with two starters playing their first collegiate game. The Loggers paced the game early and gained their largest advantage on the afternoon early in the contest. That lead was only 5, an early indication of how close the game would remain. Lincoln Land had established a 19-15 lead before playing, probably the only poor stretch of the game, by surrendering a 9-0 run to the Rock Valley Golden Eagles. For the rest of the half the two teams stayed within three points of each other, trading the lead back and forth until the halftime came to a close with Rock Valley getting a bucket off an offensive rebound as time expired to go into the half up 38-35. At half the two teams state were nearly identical with Rock Valley having pulled in 2 more rebounds that gave them the extra made bucket that was the difference up to that point. 
 
To start the second half, the two traded buckets again until the Golden Eagles were able to get an and-one bucket with a free throw and follow it up the next possession with a lay-up to gain their largest advantage at 49-43. It took LLCC nearly 5:00 of game play, but eventually the Loggers got back to even at 52-52 and a three pointer on the next possession gave Lincoln Land their first lead of the second half with 10:22 to play. For the remainder of the game, three was the further either team could get away from the other.  Over the last 5:11 of regulation and overtime the Loggers relied on two sophomores as Nate Moore and Josh Banks who scored 17 of the Loggers final 19 points. 
 
With 2:52 to play the Loggers got out to a 67-64 lead however, Rock Valley got the next two scores including one that put them ahead with just 1:12 to play at 68-67. Moore knocked in two free throws to give Lincoln Land the lead back and Josh Banks added two more with :32 to go to give Lincoln Land a 71-68 lead. Lincoln Land got what they needed as they forced a miss on the subsequent possession, but a tie up underneath the basket on the rebound gave the Golden Eagles one more shot. Lincoln Land again shut down the Rock Valley set play and looked close to pulling out the victory, but the Golden Eagles found a man who shot over a defender and nailed a three to tie it at 71 with just 0.4 seconds left. 
 
The overtime followed a very similar script as both teams trading the lead a few times early on. A Banks layup put the Loggers again up three this time with a 1:00 left in overtime. Lincoln Land got a defensive stop and had an opportunity to put the game out of reach, but missed two free throws giving Rock Valley a chance that they took advantage of. The Golden Eagles knocked in another three at :20 remaining to tie the game again at 79. Nate Moore brought the ball up the floor, came off a pick and got a defender switch and hit a step back contested three with just :03.6 left to get the Loggers their final advantage. The Loggers chose to foul the Golden Eagles with time winding down. Rock Valley made the first free throw, but committed a violation on the second attempt giving LLCC the ball. The Loggers got the ball inbounds with no issue and sealed the 82-80 victory. 
 
Lincoln Land secured the victory controlling most of the stats battles, with the exception of rebounding where they were outrebounded 40-29. The Loggers made up for that deficit shooting a better percentage from the field, three, and free throw line and committing only 10 turnovers to Rock Valley's 16. The game also featured 17 lead changes and 15 ties
 
Lincoln Land had only 6 players score, but 5 of those 6 put in at least 8 points led by three in double digits. Jean Piere-Villegas in his first college basketball game 15 points and brought in a team high 6 rebounds. Sophomore Josh Banks also ended with 15 points and grabbed 5 rebounds of his own. The stat of the day came from sophomore Nate Moore who scored a career high 31 points going 8-14 from the field, 4-6 from 3 and 11-15 from the free throw line. Moore's 31 points are the most scored by a Logger since February 14, 2015 when Eddie Longmeyer scored 31, meaning about 45% of the scores saw a lead change or tie.
 
Lincoln Land remains home for their next game when St. Louis Community College comes to Cass Gym next Wednesday the 12th.