Lynx Win 67- 47 Over John Wood Community College

How does a team overcome an underachieving first half performance?

A 15-0 run to start the second half is certainly helpful to the cause.

That method proved effective enough to the Lincoln College men’s basketball game in their first-round playoff game Thursday night, a 67-47 victory over John Wood Community College (14-18) at Lincoln Christian College’s Laughlin Center. The Lynx began postseason play ranked No. 3 in the latest NJCAA Division II poll, and as the top seed in Region XXIV, now boasting a record of 26-5.

After a first half that saw his highly regarded team ahead 31-28, Lynx coach BJ McCullum said he saw no reason to panic. Instead, the coach took the “glass half full” approach.

“I expected this game to very hard fought,” McCullum said. “After the way they played us last Saturday, and being in a new gym, I thought it would be difficult to score.”

“I really wasn’t that disappointed. I told them (at halftime) ‘We gave up two or three offensive rebounds, and missed five free throws’. If we just boxed out better or hit our free throws, it’s probably a 10 or 11 point halftime lead.”

The game-changing run to start the second half got started on a jumper from sophomore Kyle Jacobs with 19:20 remaining, followed by back to back three-pointers from sophomore Shawn Bridgewater and freshman PJ Keaton.

Following a Trailblazer timeout to try and slow the snowballing Lynx momentum, Keaton hit a jumper, followed by another three to put the Lynx ahead 44-28 with 16:50 remaining. A Jacobs basket with 15:55 to play completed the 15-0 run.

For just how dominant the Lynx were during that span, consider this: John Wood did not so much as a get a shot off on the offensive end for first four minutes and forty seconds of the second half.

“In the end, they are just a good team,” said John Wood coach Michael Elbe. “Their ability to make individual plays really hurt us. They had the 15-0 run to start it, and that gave them all the momentum.”

“When they get that kind of momentum, they’re tough to stop. If you want a chance to beat Lincoln, you have to keep them from getting that momentum for 40 minutes, because you saw tonight how contagious it is. When they hit a couple shots, then everybody starts hitting shots for them, and when we started missing shots, everyone started missing them for us.”

The Trailblazers would never put another scare back into the Lynx following the early second half spurt. At one point, the Lynx had outscored their opponents 30-6 in the final twenty minutes.
“I thought our defense was really the key,” said McCullum. “We were able to string together a few stops there for awhile, and that allowed us to build the lead.”

Also playing a key role in the Lynx win was the individual play of Jacobs. With Midwest Athletic Conference first-teamer Brandon Alexander saddled with foul trouble for much of the game, Jacobs assumed a bigger role in the offense, scoring a team-high 20 points.

Jacobs is one Lynx who was ready for the playoffs to start.

“Just remembering what it was like to lose last year,” said Jacobs, a transfer from Spoon River College, said of what inspired his performance. “The rest of these guys went to the (National) Tournament, and I just want to get there this year real bad. I tried to step up for us tonight.”

McCullum was pleased to see Jacobs play well.

“Kyle had some very nice games scoring the ball for us earlier in the year,” said the coach. “He’s had some good practices lately.”

“I think the best thing might be seeing a different group of guys doing the scoring tonight. Kyle, and seeing PJ get back on track a little bit, Rob, and then Shawn again. I was pleased with how David Pickering played tonight, and the key to the game might have been the way Sheldan Evans played defensively. I was pleased.”

Bridgewater had 15 points, followed by Keaton with 11, and freshman Rob Rabenau with 10 as double-figure scorers for the Lynx. No one for John Wood reached double figures.

Although pleased with the size of the crowd at the Laughlin Center, both McCullum and Jacobs were hopeful for a bigger crowd when they host the semifinals on Saturday at 3 p.m.

“We’d love to have (the Laughlin Center) full,” McCullum said. “It’s a slight disadvantage for us playing here instead of our real home floor, and the more people we get here, we can change the environment into our favor. It’s a beautiful facility, and I think we’re a good basketball team that could use some support on Saturday.”

“(Fans can expect) the exact same thing they saw tonight,” said Jacobs. “We like a big crowd to get us pumped up.”

Game time on Saturday is 3 p.m.

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