EDWARDSVILLE - Edwardsville High School's boys' basketball team honored Lincoln High School on Friday night by wearing its 1951-52 uniforms, playing as the Trojans, and got 22 points from Brennan Weller and 17 from Jack Nafziger in a 73-39 win over Mascoutah at Lucco-Jackson Gym.
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Earlier in the day, the Trojans received a forfeit win over East St. Louis when it was discovered that the Flyers had accidentally used an ineligible player in their 54-47 win last Friday night. East St. Louis self-reported use of the player and forfeited the game to Lincoln, officially running their winning streak to 10 games, going to 20-7 on the season.
In a pregame ceremony, the Lincoln School Alumni Foundation was given a $1,000 donation from Edwardsville High, and its members were recognized in the ceremony.
"What a neat evening to honor and represent the Lincoln School," said Trojan coach Dustin Battas. "Their foundation was here, and our guys got special uniforms for tonight. They were so excited, and I just felt like, it was a kind of a feeling in the locker room tonight that it was going to be a special night, and a lot of things came to fruition with the way we played, and making those threes. And so, extremely happy for our guys that we get to enjoy the reward of a good win, and 20 wins, and I'm just real appreciative of the guys in this locker room, and the people who helped make tonight a special night."
The 20 wins represent one of the best turnaround season in the area this year, going from 9-20 last season to their current mark of 20-7 with four games remaining in the regular season. Battas is very proud of his team for their accomplishments thus far.
"They're a great group to coach, and they like to be coached," Battas said, "and they take a lot of pride in competition. But we really didn't set a goal to win 20 games, we just want to try to practice good every day, and win every game, and give yourself a chance to win every game, and our guys have done that and excelled. At the end of the year, at the banquet or something, we'll look back and feel great about 20 wins, but right now, we're just going to move on to the next one and try to have a great practice on Sunday."
Once again, very good team defense, along with hitting big shots, were the key to the Trojans' win.
"I thought we made some shots, but I thought our guards did a great job of attacking and drawing help," Battas said, 'and then passing to open shooters. A lot of our threes were wide open, because of Caleb (Valentine) and Jalil (Roundtree) and Ethan (Young). And I thought our defense in the third quarter, holding them to five points, really gave us some separation heading into the fourth. We were able to rotate some bodies in there, and execute some things, still, in the fourth quarter that gave us that cushion."
The Indians didn't score a field goal in the third quarter until very late, and a small adjustment on defense made a big difference.
"We just made one small tweak on defense at halftime," Battas said, "and our guys were able to take them out of what they wanted to do in the third quarter and really get on. (Braden Bryant's) a good shooter for them, as is (Jacob Rudolphi), but I thought our guys really did a good job of guarding him, and then Jalil did a great job on (Cedric Rhodes); he didn't have any points tonight, and he's scoring about 14 a game. So overall, great team defense, but there were some really great individual efforts in there as well."
The Trojans started out hot, with Nafziger hitting a three and Weller a basket to make it 5-0, and after an exchange of baskets that made the score 7-4, back-to-back threes from Nafziger put Lincoln ahead 13-4. A basket in the lane by Justin King and a pair of Weller free throws made it 16-6 and from there, the Trojans outscored Mascoutah 5-2, with Weller hitting a three right before the buzzer to make it 21-10 at the end of the first quarter.
The two sides exchanged basket to start the second quarter, making the score 25-14 before Lincoln went on a 12-5 run the rest of the way, with Weller starting the run with a pair of free throws, but a banked-home three from the top of the key from Will Siebert made it 27-17 for the Trojans. A Nafziger three and Roundtree basket upped the advantage to 34-17, and another Nafziger three after a Mascoutah basket made the halftime score 37-19 for Lincoln.
Weller started the second half with a steal and score, and a Roundtree three put the Trojans ahead 42-19 before a free throw by Bryant made the score 42-20. Lincoln then went on a 13-0 run, getting threes from Weller and Young, a three-point play from Weller, and baskets from Nafziger and Valentine to make it 55-20 before the Indians got their first basket of the quarter from Ryan Bibb. A three before the buzzer made it 61-24 for Lincoln at the end of the third quarter.
The fourth quarter was played with a running clock, but the Trojans stayed hot, with Willie Thomas hitting a pair of threes in the quarter, and Shaun Placate also chipped in a three as Lincoln went on to the 73-39 win.
Besides Weller and Nafziger, Valentine and Thomas each had six points, and both Young and Roundtree each had five. Mascoutah didn't have a player in double figures, with Siebert scoring seven, and three players --- Rudolphi, King and Bibb --- scoring six points each.
The Trojans play their final four regular-season games in the Southwestern Conference, three on the road, and the final stretch gets underway at Collinsville Tuesday night, then next Friday at Alton. Battas is looking forward to the challenges awaiting his team.
"Collinsville's obviously really good," Battas said, "they've had a great season, and I think our guys like playing against good teams, and playng against good players. We'll do our best to have a great practice on Sunday and Monday, and try to compete on Tuesday."
Battas agreed it'll be a good stretch run for the Trojans, and his team will be ready.
"Yeah, we want to be playing our best basketball these last two weeks," Battas said. "I think we're heading in the right direction. I just told our guys that we don't want to let up, we want to remember why we've had success, and that's because you've been practicing so good. We'll just keep meeting those expectations before every game, and that'll always give us a chance to win. Just happy for our guys, and appreciative of Mr. (Alex) Fox (the Edwardville High athletic director), and Dr. (Dennis) Cramsey (the school principal) and the Lincoln Foundation for making tonight such a special night. What a game for the Lincoln Trojans!"
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
