Lynx Win Home Opener Against Rend Lake

Despite some spurts of lack luster play, the men’s basketball team from Lincoln College proved to be too much for the Warriors from Rend Lake College Tuesday night. The Lynx won their home opener, 75-64, moving to 3-0 on the season.

“I thought we did a lot things well tonight,” said Lynx coach B.J. McCullum. “We played really hard all night defensively. Our rebounding was improved from where it was last weekend. And offensively, we moved the ball really well, and were able to get a lot of people involved.”

“There’s still room for improvement though. With our offense, we let our guys have a lot of freedom. Being our third game, I think guys are still getting used to playing together. There were probably around five or six times in our half court offense tonight, that we made a bad pass where someone wasn’t expecting it. Hopefully, the next game we can get that down to four or five. We’ll improve on that as the season goes, I think.”

Both teams started the game with solid play. At the 10 minute mark, midway through the first half, LC held a slim 19-17 lead over the Warriors. A small Lynx run over the next three minutes would stretch the lead to six, when a Brandon Alexander dunk put LC ahead 27-21 with 6:53 remaining. Rend Lake answered with a pair of three pointers from guard Dominuqe Petty to tie the score at 27 with just over 5 minutes remaining in the first half.

The Lynx would follow that with a run of their own. Sophomore Kyle Jacobs scored five of LC’s next eleven points, in an 11-2 run over the next four minutes, before Rend Lake’s Anthony Sargent finished the half’s scoring with LC ahead, 38-31. Jacobs finished with a team high 18 points.

“Kyle had a real nice game,” said McCullum. “We give him a lot of freedom out there to make things happen for us. He can do a lot of different things offensively, going to the rim, or shooting from outside. One of his biggest strengths is taking what the defense gives him, and he showed that tonight.”

“We tried to work things from the inside to the outside,” said Jacobs. “We can make it hard for team’s to focus on just one thing. If people play us tight, we can get to the basket. And we’ve got a lot of shooters on this team, so if they try to play off us, we can knock it down from outside. Tonight, there were some times where I had good chances to take it to them.”

The Lynx were seemingly able to carry some of the momentum from their late first half run, embarking on an early 7-2 second half run, thanks in large part due to the scoring punch of freshman Robb Rabenau. After checking into the game at the 17 minute mark, Rabenau made an immediate impact, scoring six straight points to give the Lynx a 45-33 lead.

Rabenau, a 6’7” interior forward, showed some proverbial “soft touch” for a big man, sinking a few 15-foot jumpers en route to his 14 point performance.

“I think Robb is really going to be a good player for us,” said McCullum. “He’s got some nice moves with his back to the basket, and he’s really got a nice game away from the hoop. He’s got permission to take the three when he’s open, because it’s a shot he can knock down.”

The Lynx would never relinquish their double digit lead, cruising to a comfortable 12-14 point cushion for the majority of the second half. The exclamation point for Lynx fans came when freshman P.J. Keaton connected with Alexander in transition on an alley-oop pass over a helpless Rend Lake defender, putting the Lynx ahead 61-46 with 7:35.

Asked what passed through his mind as he saw the play develop, Jacobs cracked a smile.

“Game over,” said Jacobs. “That was the play of the game, no question. Our crowd loved it, and it really gave us the momentum. The biggest thing was, it took their momentum away, and we were able to just keep going.”

“They are two good players,” said McCullum. “P.J. made a great pass, and Brandon’s an amazing athlete. It’s just like playing catch in mid-air to them, really.”

Alexander and freshman guard David Pickering finished with 12 points for LC.

Following a perfect 2-0 record this past weekend at the Waubonsee Classic, and Tuesday night’s victory over Rend Lake, the Lynx now prepare for ten layoff, until a November 18th match-up at Moraine Valley in Canton.

“We’re going to keep working on some things,” said McCullum. “We’re going to try and correct some of our mistakes this week, and they’ll get the weekend off. Then things are back to normal next week.”

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