JEFFERSON CITY, MO. – Finally. It may have taken two months and several agonizing defeats, but the Lincoln University men’s basketball team played their best all-around game of the season and defeated second-place Incarnate Word, 86-77, Thursday night in Heartland Conference action inside Jason Gym.
It looked like Incarnate Word (13-6, 6-3 HC) was set to roll to another victory in the early going, as they jumped out to a seven-point advantage, 11-4, just three minutes in on a dunk by Chris Johnson.
Lincoln (3-15, 1-8 HC) would tie the game four times before finally breaking through with their first lead of the game at the 9:45 mark after junior Michael Dorton converted a three-point play making it 28-27.
The lead would change hands several times over the next three minutes before the Blue Tigers began to get a little run of their own going with senior Ryan Spearman connecting from distance and after junior Eric Jones nailed a jumper, Spearman finished off the run with another trey at the 5:48 mark to give the Blue Tigers the six point lead, 41-35.
The Cards would tie the game back up, but Lincoln would go into the locker room holding a three-point lead, 50-47.
The teams would go back-and-forth through the first 11 minutes of the second half and after the 10th tie of the game, Spearman delivered another three at the 8:41 mark to put Lincoln up by three, 70-67, and ahead for good as it turned out.
As every time the Cards seemed to make a basket on their end, Lincoln was ready to counter, which happened over the next two minutes, with Incarnate Word cutting the lead down to three, three times, but each time Lincoln answered, with senior Lionel Booker delivering a layup, Dorton a jumper and senior Donald Brumfield made several moves inside the paint for his bucket at the 4:43 mark to keep Lincoln ahead by five, 78-73.
Incarnate Word made one last run at Lincoln, cutting the lead to four after Johnson hit a free throw at the 1:32 mark making it 81-77 Lincoln.
The Blue Tigers closed strong, as Jones hit on a wide open jumper on the next trip down the floor after some great passing and a pair of free throws from freshman Anthony Welch sealed the deal.
Five Blue Tigers found their way to double figures, with Booker leading the way with 22 points, four rebounds and four assists, while Dorton added 17 and nine rebounds. Spearman, Gaters and Welch all added 13 points each.
Both teams shot well from the floor, with Lincoln hitting at nearly a 60 percent clip going 31-for-53 (58.5), while the Cards countered with a 31-for-56 (55.4) effort. The win did several things for the Blue Tigers, including giving them their first home win of the season (1-6), their first conference win and also ended an 11-game slide.
Lincoln will return to action this Saturday when they welcome in St. Mary’s to Jason Gym with tipoff set for 4:30 p.m.
Incarnate Word vs Lincoln University
01/28/10 8:00 at Jefferson City, MO
At Jefferson City, MO
LINCOLN UNIVERSITY 86, INCARNATE WORD 77
INCARNATE WORD (13-6, 6-3 HC)
Eric Stewart 10-15 0-1 22; Tracy Robinson 7-11 4-4 18; Pierce Caldwell 5-13
2-2 14; Chris Johnson 4-4 2-3 10; Tamas Cseh 1-2 3-4 5; Kelcey Solomon 2-4
0-0 4; Deleon Hines 1-3 0-0 2; Shaun Umeh 1-4 0-0 2. Totals 31-56 11-14 77.
LINCOLN UNIVERSITY (3-15, 1-8 HC)
Booker, Lionel 6-14 8-11 22; Dorton, Michael 7-12 3-5 17; Spearman, Ryan 4-8
2-2 13; Gaters, Darrius 6-9 1-3 13; Welch, Anthony 4-6 4-4 13; Jones, Eric
3-3 0-0 6; Brumfield, Donald 1-1 0-0 2; Rodriguez, Cameron 0-0 0-0 0. Totals
31-53 18-25 86.
Incarnate Word................ 47 30 - 77
Lincoln University............ 50 36 - 86
3-point goals--Incarnate Word 4-15 (Eric Stewart 2-5; Pierce Caldwell 2-7;
Deleon Hines 0-1; Shaun Umeh 0-1; Tracy Robinson 0-1), Lincoln University
6-12 (Spearman, Ryan 3-5; Booker, Lionel 2-5; Welch, Anthony 1-2). Fouled
out--Incarnate Word-Shaun Umeh, Lincoln University-None. Rebounds--Incarnate
Word 25 (Tracy Robinson 8), Lincoln University 29 (Dorton, Michael 9).
Assists--Incarnate Word 15 (Eric Stewart 8), Lincoln University 16
(Spearman, Ryan 6). Total fouls--Incarnate Word 22, Lincoln University 17.
Technical fouls--Incarnate Word-None, Lincoln University-None. A-451