The Lincoln Land Loggers men's basketball team kicked off Mid-West Athletic Conference play at Cass Gym on Saturday afternoon and picked up an important victory, battling back from an early deficit before defeating John Wood Community College, 74-63.
The Trail Blazers jumped out in front early, opening the game on the scoreboard and building a 6-0 lead and maintained that 6 point advantage for much of the first 10:00-12:00 of play. Finally the Loggers were able to make head way and got back to back threes to take their first lead at 21-19. Lincoln Land rattled off a 10-0 run to take a 25-19 lead. The lead was fairly short lived as John Wood went on a 13-2 run to close the half and go in with a 34-29 advantage.
The Trail Blazers continued their run, scoring the first five points to take their game high 10 point lead. The two teams traded a few scores and Lincoln Land was able to mix in a couple stops until they slowly chipped away and got the game back even at 51-51. From there, the Loggers balance scoring attack flourished as 5 Loggers scored 5+ points in the second half, led by Nate Moore with 17 second half points, enough to lead the game in scoring alone. Two big sparks came off the bench, Josh Banks scored 6 and Matthew Smith scored a career high 7, all in the second half, helping the Loggers slowly pull away from that 51-51 tie and closing their 74-63 victory.
Lincoln Land overcame their worst rebounding night of the season, pulling in only 20 total rebounds, a season low and being out-rebounded by a season high 17. How Lincoln Land overcame those stats was that they committed a season low 9 turnovers and grabbed a season high 13 steals. The Loggers had played 9 players Saturday afternoon and all 9 Loggers scored. Nate Moore led all scorers with 30 points, including going 11-12 from the free throw line. That is the second time Moore has eclipsed the 30-point mark this season and the third game of 30+ by a Logger this year. Of note, Matt Smith ended with his career and season high 7 points.
Lincoln Land improves to 4-4 on the season and is 1-0 in MWAC play. They remain home for their next contest as Rend Lake comes to Cass Gym on Wednesday evening.
