John Wood – 72
Lincoln Land – 68
Lincoln Land held a late lead in Quincy Wednesday night, but John Wood ripped away victory late and JWCC walked out with a 72-68 victory.
The Loggers traveled to Quincy on a foggy Wednesday evening to take on the Blazers of John Wood and attending to stay a game ahead in first place. The teams were slow to get going as neither team scored until over 3:00 into the game, and once they both were on the board neither team lit it up from there. The Loggers held their only lead of the first half early, leading only by 2. John Wood was the team who got going quicker as nearly halfway through the first half they held a lead at 15-4 over the Loggers as early foul trouble put the Loggers with bench players and inexperienced lineups on the floor together. Jermale Young was the spark for the Loggers coming off the bench with 7 points in the first 20:00. Once settled into the flow, Lincoln Land chipped away at the Blazers lead and got back within 2 before John Wood was able to push it out to a 35-31 advantage at half.
Opposite of the first half, John Wood had no issues scoring in the first 3:00 as they came out on a 8-2 run and lead by their game high 11 at that point. Following a timeout, Lincoln Land got their spark from the other Young brother this half, Jermontre this time lead the scoring charge. Jermontre Young got 10 points in the second half, many pushing the Loggers back into the contest. Once down 11, Lincoln Land went on a 15-4 run to tie the game with around 10:00. The last 10:00 featured 4 ties and 8 lead changes. Although Lincoln Land held a lead four separate times, LLCC never lead by more than 2 points. With just a couple minutes remaining Lincoln Land had most of the momentum and took a 64-63 lead. However, that proved the last advantage the Loggers held. John Wood responded with an and-one bucket and took away the lead and stayed ahead until the end. Although, John Wood raced ahead LLCC had the possession down 3 under a minute to go, but we unable to get a bucket. A late putback with under :02 left gave Lincoln Land one last chance trailing again only by 3. After getting fouled on the inbound JWCC got one of two free throws to get ahead 4 and to seal the 72-68 loss for the Loggers.
Lincoln Land drops back to .500 at 8-8 and suffered their first loss in conference and region play. Lincoln Land continues to get fairly balanced scoring as 9 Loggers scored again Wednesday evening, 6 of those Loggers had at least 8. Jermontre Young continues his hot scoring streak, getting to 12 which ended as a team high. The Young brothers were the only two in double digits as Jermale ended with 10. Camren Kincaid ended with 9 and Stephan Douglas had one of his best games working back from injury, also ending with 9.
Lincoln Land does not have long to rest as Parkland College comes into Cass Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon at 3:00.
