The Lincoln Land men's basketball team took control of their Saturday afternoon game halfway through the first half and then held on late to defeat the Blazers of John Wood 84-78.
Lincoln Land took nearly 3:00 of game play to get their first bucket and only trailed by as many as 4 early as they were down 6-2. Once the Loggers settled in and took a 9-7 lead, they never gave that advantage away. The Blazers tied the game up at 9, but the Loggers then rattled off the next 9 points and held the lead the rest of the afternoon. John Wood made one last impression during the first half, getting back within 21-18. From there the Loggers had their strongest stretch of the afternoon rattling off 12 straight. The largest lead of the afternoon came right before half as Jean-Piere Villegas hit a three pointer int he closing seconds of the first frame, putting the Loggers up 42-26 going in to half.
Although LLCC never gave the lead back up, John Wood also did not let the Loggers have it easy. The Blazers came out hot, getting the first 8 points of the half. Lincoln Land saw their double-digit lead get cut under 10 and remain around that mark for the next few minutes. The Loggers led 52-42 when John Wood found a quick scoring burst getting 9 straight points this time and got all the way back to within 1, the closest they had been since they led 7-6 early in the first half. LLCC would muster a score to stop the John Wood run, but the Blazers would respond with a score to cut it back to a single bucket. From 8:00 to play to 4:00 to play was an enormous stretch for the Loggers. With the score at 61-60 after a Blazers bucket, Lincoln Land pulled out another 12-0 run to find themselves back up double digits. Yet, the game was not over. On the brink of the contest getting away from them, John Wood again found a spark, responding with a 7-0 run to get back within 5. Gus McCrary got one of the biggest buckets of the afternoon putting in a layup and a free throw after getting fouled, giving the Loggers a little more breathing room. The Loggers needed every bit of it, as they led by 77-68 after another free throw the Blazers would not go away and yet again went on a 7-0 scoring spurt to get the game right back to one possession at 77-75. On the next possession, Jalen Ashely knocked in two free throws to push it back to 5. After a stop, Keshaun Harlan walked to the line to put in two of his own and finally the Loggers gave themself enough space to have the victory in sight. The Loggers closed just strong enough to hold on to the 84-78 victory.
Harlan ended with a game high 23, his second game in a row with 20+ points. Nate Moore was a spark off the bench ending with 18 and McCrary was another spark coming off the bench to add 9 points, a game high 10 rebounds, and tying for a game high with 5 assists. Jaylen Lockhart also got to double digits off the bench, adding in 11.
Lincoln Land improved to 7-8 on the season and back to .500 in conference getting to 4-4. The Loggers have little rest this week as they head back out on the road Monday to play Illinois Wesleyan's JV Monday evening in Bloomington and then head down to Ina, Illinois to take on Rend Lake Wednesday, before ending the week at home against conference leader Danville Area Community College Saturday afternoon.
