‘Havoc creating’ Lincoln hangs on for 61-59 win over Lakes: 4 takeaways
It turned interesting toward the end, but Lincoln held on for a 61-59 over Lakes in the 3A Pierce County League on Friday night at Lincoln High School. Here are four takeaways from Lincoln’s win.
LINCOLN’S PRESS CAUSES ISSUES
The Abes jumped out a 24-9 lead in the first quarter and a 39-24 lead at half, thanks in large part to a full-court press which made Lakes uncomfortable from the start, forcing turnovers and giving Lincoln points in transition.
“We’re able to create havoc,” said Lincoln coach Ryan Rogers. “It’s controlled chaos. We work on situations like that every day, to where we bring our energy and force them to the spots where we want them to go. I think that’s what we did a great job of in the first half. We got them to our spots and got our rotations, made it kind of hectic for them and got the steals that we wanted.”
Lincoln forward Julien Simon had a simpler explanation for the first-half defensive success.
“(Lakes) warmed up with 12 minutes left (on the clock prior to the game),” Simon said. “That’s all that needs to be said for that.”
LAKES MAKES IT INTERESTING IN SECOND HALF
Whatever the reason for Lakes’ slow start, it didn’t last in the second half. The Lancers made things interesting, storming back late in the third quarter and fourth quarter to eventually make it a one-possession game late in the final period.
But Lincoln’s Reggie Archibald made a pair of free throws to extend the lead to five and seal the win with seconds remaining on the clock.
“We just had to keep playing,” Simon said. “Never give up. We kind of let our foot off the gas, that’s not what we wanted to end the game like. It was closer than it needed to be. But we finished it out and that’s all we wanted to do. We got the finish.”
Rogers said sometimes Lincoln’s up-tempo style can pay dividends — like in the first half — and sometimes it can be detrimental.
“We play aggressive,” Rogers said. “It helped us in the first half and then you kind of get away from what was helping us be successful. You kind of get over antsy and get easy cheap steals instead of just keeping people in front of us and making our pressure felt from the half court instead of gambling.
“I think we gambled one too many times and they got some good looks, and they’re a good team. They get going and it’s hard to stop them.”
LAKES’ MASSEY CAN FILL THE SCORESHEET
The 6-foot-7 junior forward is a natural talent, with athleticism to match his length. He has a rare handle for someone his size, can score around the hoop and in the midrange game. Massey finished with a game-high 21 points, with 14 of those points coming in the second half.
“He’s very tough,” Rogers said. “He can do it all. He can attack, dribble, shoot it. We just wanted to make things difficult for him and not let him get into a rhythm. We did a great job finding him in transition to not let him get any easy points in transition. He had to work for everything he got tonight, for the most part.”
Jacobi Cole-Thomas finished with 13 points for Lakes, Jordan McCray scored nine, Keon Dewalt scored five, Kristian Reynolds and Rashad Hickson scored four apiece and Brandon McCray scored three for the Lancers.
SIMON IS THE GO-TO SCORER WHEN LINCOLN NEEDS A BUCKET
Simon will be a Division-I football player, and isn’t the type of basketball player who will average 30 points a game. But when the game is on the line, Simon is the player who should have the ball in his hands for Lincoln.
He made two clutch shots in the game’s waning minutes to help Lincoln hang on for the win and is virtually automatic from the low block, scoring off the glass on a runner.
“He’s the ultimate competitor,” Rogers said. “He doesn’t like to lose and he carries that into practice every single day. He does a lot of things that people don’t realize makes a great basketball player. He plays really good defense, he’s a rebounder, gets the spots and finds open guys and when we need him, he can go and get a bucket. He’s a strong kid and he does everything we ask him to do and more. He’s a great athlete.”
Simon finished with 11 points, Reggie Archibald scored 11, Parker Androy and Gabe Wright scored eight apiece, Gabarri Johnson scored seven, Durius Bailey scrored six, Jayden Clemons-Wayne scored five and Jaylen Clark scored four for the Abes in the win.
And Lincoln (6-4 overall, 4-2 PCL 3A) seems to be hitting its stride at the right time, after a slow start to the season, having to replace four starters from last year’s team and having the football team play deep into the state tournament, which gave Rogers even more of a challenge at the beginning of the season.
“(We’re playing) way better than we did in the first part of the season,” Simon said. “We still have some improvement we need to work on and just keep on going.”
This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 10:32 PM.
