Lincoln had holes to fill entering season. Everyone has stepped up for first-place Abes

Entering their first full season in two years, the Lincoln High School girls basketball team had some questions surrounding them.

How were they going to replace Kristol Ayson’s near 27 points per game? And how were they going to control the paint after 6-foot-4 center Sharayah Johnson graduated?

The answer for coach Jamila Jones and the Abes was pretty easy: Next group up.

That philosophy has proven to be successful thus far for the Abes, who are currently sitting at 10-1 on the season and 7-0 in the 3A Pierce County League, all alone at first place.

“The funny thing about it is that we can be so much better,” Jones said. “Right now, we are almost 11 deep. And I think that’s a tough thing for us in this young season. We’re 9-0, but we’re still trying to figure out who we are. We’re coming off of the COVID year and we arguably graduated 50 points a game. When you graduate that, you have to figure out how to replace it. And then we didn’t have a real summer, so we are doing it by committee.”

The Abes are coming back from a season that was shortened due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, limiting them to only 10 games. However, they went 9-1 that season and capped it off with a 3A PCL championship.

Go back a year earlier to the 2019-20 season, and the Abes are a team that won the 3A West Central District championship as well. When it comes to his current squad, Jones sees his team has championship potential.

The Abes are averaging almost 67 points per game and are conceding just 40 points per game. So, the committee is doing something right for Lincoln.

“That’s what is setting us apart, it’s allowing us to get out and overwhelm people. We are doing that while we learn what it is that we do and how we do that together,” Jones said. “We’ve been able to get out and run, in transition. We really have to rely on pressuring and trapping teams. We have a young team so when you’re trying to teach them your defensive philosophy and plans, sometimes it gets hard.”

Jones has thrown his young team into the fire. By playing and working together on the court, the Abes have learned on the fly how to put together their defense.

Leading the way on the court offensively for Lincoln are junior guard Malani Warren and sophomore guard Jaleigha Robinson, both of whom were 3A PCL All-League players last year.

“We are doing really good as a whole right now; we don’t need another piece to put us together. Where we are at is really good,” Warren said. “We are glued together because we have chemistry. There’s nothing else that we need. [On the court], I’m effective by being a really good three-point shooter from the corner. I really like to shoot threes.”

Warren knows what it takes for the Abes to be successful. She was a freshman the year Lincoln won the district championship, and a sophomore when they won the 3A PCL. She acts as almost an extension of Jones and the coaching staff.

She demonstrates what is expected of the Abes both in terms of running plays and the effort they need to show on the court to her younger teammates.

“I’m really showing them what [our team] was like in years before,” Warren said. “I’m making them feel that pressure of ‘we really need to sit down and focus up’ so we can get there.”

This year, she and her teammates are well on their way to another PCL title. Where Warren can have big offensive games for the Abes, players like junior guard Simani Thomas are in the background. Although she may not put up flashy stats, it’s her gutsy and gritty defensive style that shines.

Thomas is a player who goes out every game and sacrifices her body to play strong defense for Lincoln. She will body up against her opponent and make it hard for them to find any open lanes to the basket.

In Jones’ eye, players like Thomas are the backbone of his squad. Without them, there would be huge holes in his roster. He wouldn’t be able to use a roster that runs 11 deep.

But because Jones has that availability, it creates another advantage the Abes have over other teams. All of their players can go on the court and do well competing with the other team. Come late third and fourth quarters, there won’t be any tired legs for the Abes.

“This team can be really great, especially with so many young pieces,” Jones said. “I really like these guys… We’re a team with so many bodies that everybody is playing. As long as we stick together and they understand that our strength is our numbers, then we can do things at the district and state level.”