Lynx Defeat ICC 85-56

The Lincoln College men’s basketball team has been piling up wins in a variety of ways this season. Of their sixteen wins, there have been down to the wire, barnburners mixed the occasional good ol’ fashioned beat down. 

Illinois Central College (12-12, 3-7) found themselves the recipient of the latter Wednesday night, as the Lynx routed the Cougars 85-56 at Davidson-Sheffer Gymnasium. 

“They’re just a better team,” said ICC coach Tony Wysinger. “It’s that simple.”

The Lynx, ranked No. 5 in NJCAA, were able to use a hot start to establish what wound up being a large margin of victory, outscoring the Cougar 25-5 in the game’s first 9 minutes. The Lynx (16-4, 8-1) kept a high level of intensity on the defensive end for the majority of the half, forcing ICC into 10 first half turnovers to oppose two turnovers for LC. The Lynx lead at the break, 46-20. 

While pleased with his team’s victory, McCullum made note a few things that were bothersome in the lopsided win. 

“When you shoot well, you always look like your playing well,” said LC head coach BJ McCullum. “We hit some shots early in this game, and I think it makes us look like we’re playing better offense than we are. I actually was a little frustrated, because for all of our size and athleticism, we fall in love with the three a lot.

“Shawn Bridgewater and Brandon (Alexander) were factors on the interior tonight, and I think that helped us a lot. Obviously, David (Pickering) always has the green light, and we like Jake Littrel to shoot threes, but we would like to get the ball inside, and then back out. We’re not doing a great job of that, and it’s going to catch us.”

Another factor in the margin of victory was the play of ICC freshman guard Kyle Julius.  In the teams January 11th match up, Julius scored 25 points in a 10-point victory for the Lynx. Julius finished Wednesday night with two points on 1-3 shooting. 

“Their best scorer, Kyle Julius, didn’t start because he’s got a sprained ankle,” said McCullum. “He had 25 against us up there. He’s a big part of their offense, and not having him ready to play really hurt them.”

For the second game in a row, the Lynx failed to duplicate a dominant first half performance in the second half, something McCullum attributed to the play of ICC.

“Quite honestly, they just played better in the second half,” the coach said. “We played really well defensively in the first half, especially with them not having Julius out there. The second half was a good half for them.”

McCullum also cautioned against his team allowing any hangover from the blowout victory. The Lynx are set to play Triton College, ranked No. 10 in NJCAA, on Thursday night at home.

“Triton has won nine or ten games in a row,” said McCullum. “I’m sure they’re real excited about playing us. We’re ahead of them in the national polls. It ought to be a real good ball game.

“Their very active, and very athletic. I expect it to be a fast paced game.”

Game time is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

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