Lynx Throttle Triton

One test for the best of teams is their ability to make even a really good team look bad.

The Lincoln College men’s basketball team passed that test with flying colors in Thursday night’s 92-60 rout of Triton College (17-7), who came into the game ranked No. 10 in the latest NJCAA Division II Poll. The win reaffirmed the Lynx status as the No. 5 ranked team in that poll.

Despite the big win, Lincoln College (19-4) head coach BJ McCullum tried to keep a broad perspective.

“To be honest with you, they made a long trip, they’re playing in a hard place, and we’re pretty good at defending teams like that,” said McCullum. “(We have good luck against) team’s that drive it at us. You have to make us work a little bit generally for us to make mistakes.

“They made some nice plays and things like that. Tonight I didn’t think they were very patient on offense, and we got pretty good shots pretty quickly.”

For the first eight minutes, the game lived up to it’s hype, with the team’s trading baskets and alternating defensive stops. Then, Lynx freshman guard PJ Keaton took over.

Ahead 17-14, the Lynx began a 14-3 run on a Keaton basket with 11:38 remaining in the half. Keaton would contribute 9 points to the crucial run that ended with a basket underneath from freshman forward Rob Rabenau, making the score 31-17 with 4:40 remaining. A pair of Keaton three-pointers in the final minutes helped the Lynx to a 43-25 halftime advantage.

Keaton finished the half with 17 points on 6-7 shooting, including 3-3 from three point range.

“That’s a good thing about our team, is we have a lot of guys who can score, and we’re generally unselfish,” said McCullum.

“It just felt like everything was going for me tonight,” said Keaton, who finished with a team-high 22 points. “We came out and played together. We rotated the ball well, and I just hit the open shot.”

The Lynx didn’t let their foot off the gas in a second half that didn’t feature any real comeback attempt from the Trojans. A three from sophomore forward Jake Littrel with 8:25 remaining gave the Lynx a 30-point lead, 75-45. The lowest points Trojans came when head coach Steve Christiansen was assessed a technical foul, closely followed by freshman guard David Pickering hitting sophomore Brandon Alexander for an exclamation-point alley oop with 4:13 remaining.

“I didn’t really do anything,” said Christiansen. “I don’t think I deserved the technical.”

Triton came into the game with a reputation as high scoring club, having scored over 90 points on more than one occasion. According to McCullum, statistics from non-regional opponents don’t always offer an accurate image of what to expect.

“It’s pretty common in regions other than ours for teams to score a lot,” said McCullum. “A couple years ago in 2003, at the National Tournament, we opened up against a team that was averaging 97 points per game, and we got beat 72-71.

“We’ve got good enough ball handlers that we’re not just going to throw it to them for lay-ups. They’re not just going to go through us and make shots. It’s very hard to score 90 points against us.”

Following Keaton’s 22 points, the Lynx scoring was done by sophomores Littrel, Shawn Bridgewater, and Alexander, who finished with 17, 15, and 14 respectively. Alexander also had 9 rebounds, to go with Bridgewater’s 8. Triton College was lead by Chris Perkins with 19 points.

Asked if his team was peaking following their third straight game of winning by more than 20 points, McCullum objected.

“I still think we’re still doing so many things poorly, that we’ve got a lot of room for improvement,” the coach said.

Any improvements would be especially welcome for Saturday’s home match-up with Midwestern Athletic Conference foe Parkland College. The Cobras own the Lynx sole conference loss, and come into the game just one game behind LC in the conference standings.

Keaton says it’s a game the Lynx have been waiting for.

“Definitely,” said Keaton. “That’s one of the big things we’ve had circled on our calendar- beating Parkland.”

Tip-off is set for 3 p.m., following the girls match up at 1 p.m.

# # # # #