Reviewing the statistics from Tuesday night’s 86-67 home win over Carl Sandburg College, Lincoln College men’s basketball coach BJ McCullum had plenty of options to pick from for a favorite.

The Lynx held the visiting Chargers to 32% shooting for the night, while shooting at a 51% clip themselves. The home team won the turnover battle, 24-15. The Lynx out-rebounded Sandburg 43-36. And, every player on the Lynx roster contributed at least two points to the effort.

“I thought defensively, our intensity was really a key in this game tonight,” said McCullum. “For the first twenty minutes in the first half, and the first five minutes in the second half, we really got after it.

“I was disappointed with our overall defense after Friday’s game, so we talked about that a lot in practice, and spent a little time on it. It was good to see that pay off.”

The Lynx literally lead from start to finish, never trailing Sandburg for all 40 minutes. LC jumped out to an early 10-3 lead. A small Sandburg run would cut to 12-10 at the 14 minute mark. But, a 9-0 run over the next three minutes gave the Lynx a double-digit lead that would never fail them. The romp continued over the final 10 minutes of the first half, with freshman guard David Pickering sinking two free throws with 18 second left to give the Lynx a 20 point half time advantage, 51-31.

Any Charger comeback hopes were quickly dismissed by the Lynx and sophomore forward Kevin Bridgewater early in the second half. Bridgewater completed two three-point plays on consecutive possessions, contributing a total of eight points to the Lynx 15-5 run to start the second half. A basket from freshman guard PJ Keaton gave the Lynx a 30-point lead with 14:10 remaining in the game.

Bridgewater finished the game with a team-high 18 points and seven rebounds.

“I played more inside tonight,” said Bridgewater. “I’m a little more comfortable down there, because that’s where I played last year at Spoon River. It felt like old times.

“My teammates just found me in good situations to score, and I made good on them. It seemed like there were times where I’d turn around, and not have anyone around me to stop me.”

Sophomore forward Kyle Jacob and freshman forward Rob Rabenau also scored in double figures with 10 a piece.
The lone bright spot for Carl Sandburg came by way of former Hartburg-Emden star Jason Garber. Garber finished with a game-high 19 points, which included three three-point field goals in the loss.

It was a good day for the LC men’s basketball program off the court as well. The Lynx jumped from #7 to #3 in the NJCAA Division II rankings Tuesday.

According to McCullum, his team still has some things to prove for their coach to consider his team worthy of the lofty ranking. But, they’ll get their chance this weekend at the Southeastern Iowa Classic in Burlington, Iowa.
“It doesn’t really mean anything right now,” said McCullum. “It’s a nice sign of respect, but I don’t know if we’ve earned it yet.

“Now, this weekend, if we can beat both Southeast Iowa on their home floor on Friday night, and then come back and beat a team like Kirkwood on a neutral floor on Saturday, I’ll be very happy. Kirkwood finished second last season in the national tournament, they return all five of their starters, and they’re ranked number four in the same poll.

“If we win those two, then maybe we’ll be playing like the third ranked team in the nation. Right now, we’re just a 5-0 team, and they’ve got to rank somebody.”

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