Pats blow out Boyle 79-49

Published 12:39 pm Thursday, January 23, 2020

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DANVILLE — Lincoln County took a double-dip in the victory pool Friday night at Boyle County.

Lincoln’s Lady Patriots held off a late charge by Boyle to win the first game of the 45th District doubleheader, and the Lincoln boys made it a sweep with a dominating 79-49 win over the host Rebels in the nightcap.

“We moved the ball well, defended well and played hard. It’s the best we’ve played all year so far,” Lincoln coach Jeff Jackson said. “We had good practices last week and this week. They say you play like you practice, but we’ve been practicing well and not playing super, super well. Not bad, but not great. Tonight we played like we practiced.”

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“It’s such a big rivalry. It’s a good win, a much-needed win for us.”

Lincoln (11-5, 1-1 45th District) shot a blistering 61 percent from the field, going 28-for-46 on a night that saw five Patriots score in double figures. Elijah Frye led Lincoln with 20 points on 8-for-12 shooting. Baylor Mattingly bombed in 17 points on 5-for-9 shooting from 3-point range, Riley Bodner scored 12 points on 6-for-7 shooting, Jaxon Smith had 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting and Bryston Alcorn had 10 points on 7-for-8 shooting at the foul line. A sixth player, Tramane Alcorn, just missed double figures as the freshman guard scored nine points on 4-for-5 shooting.

“We shared the ball well and did a good job of passing the ball tonight,” said Jackson. “Baylor had a great floor game, not just shooting the ball. He did some better things defensively tonight. Took care of the ball and made good decisions. Bryston was 7 out of 8 from the line and did a really good job defensively. You know, Elijah’s Elijah. Jaxon’s Jaxon. Riley’s Riley and Tramane … they played well. And Colton (Ralston) did a really good job coming off the bench for us.”

Boyle (7-6, 2-2) was held to just 30 percent shooting, getting just 17 of 57 shot attempts to fall. While the Patriots bolstered their shooting with a 9-for-18 effort from 3-point range, the Rebels got little from long range, connecting on just one of 12 3-point attempts. Both teams scored 14 points at the foul line.

The Rebels were the only ones getting a shot to fall in the first 4 minutes, 30 seconds of the game, with Boyle owning the early lead off back-to-back buckets by Luke Sheperson and Grant Hotchkiss.

Lincoln finally got its first shot to fall at the 3:30 mark with Bodner, who led Lincoln on the boards with seven rebounds, scoring on a putback. The bucket ignited a 14-2 run over the remainder of the period to put Lincoln on top for good, 14-6. Bodner added another bucket late in the run, Mattingly hit the first of his five 3’s, Frye put in two layups, Smith sank two free throws and Bryston Alcorn had one free throw toss. Hotchkiss, who had a game-high 23 points on 11-for-20 shooting, scored five of Boyle’s first six points.

The Patriots outscored the Rebels in every quarterstop, using a 28-14 second-quarter surge to distance themselves from Boyle. The run included five 3-point goals. Mattingly and Frye each drained two 3’s in the period then Smith hit a buzzer-beater 3 for the team’s largest lead of the first half, 42-18.

Lincoln’s lead never dipped below 19 points in the second half as the Patriots moved on for the win.

“I was really proud of our kids tonight,” said Jackson.

When Jackson says he’s proud of “our kids,” he isn’t simply referring to the team’s starters and top reserves.

“The guys that do our walk-throughs don’t get a lot of credit sometimes, publicly. Privately, we recognize the jobs that those guys do,” said Jackson. “We tell them, ‘you go through the walk-through and you give a good look. If your name’s called and you go in, you know what they’re doing because you’ve run it.’ I think that Cade (Jenkins) and Brady (Weaver) and Preston (Durham) and Colin (Green) and Clayton (Davis), they do a heck of a job giving the look that we need and, when they go in, they know. They don’t get enough credit sometimes.”

The Patriots beat the Rebels on the boards 36-32. Owen Barnes led Boyle with seven rebounds.

At Boyle Co.

Lincoln 14 28 23 14 – 79

Boyle 6 12 21 10 – 49

LINCOLN (12-5, 1-1) – Bryston Alcorn 10, Tramane Alcorn 9, Elijah Frye 20, Jaxon Smith 11, Baylor Mattingly 17, Riley Bodner 12.

BOYLE (7-6, 2-2) – Luke Sheperson 8, Luke Imfeld 6, Hagan Webb 5, Grant Hotchkiss 23, Owen Barnes 6, Tommy Ziesmer 1