Lancers trump the Aces for sectional title

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports

No. 1 seed Lincolnview had to shake off a little rust on Friday night.

The Lancers, who hosted No. 7 seed Hicskville in a Division VI sectional championship game, hadn’t played a game since February 14. After a shaky second quarter offensively, the Lancers got on a roll midway through the third quarter and cruised to a 58-29 win over the Aces.

“Any coach would have concerns when you have 14 days off between a loss to Arlington and a tournament game,” Lincolnview head coach Brett Hammons said. “We shortened practices up, we had a scrimmage that I thought was good for us, but scrimmages aren’t games and we knew we’d probably be a little sluggish coming in. We had to work out some things and it took awhile to get back to our rhythm.

Early on, it appeared Lincolnview (18-5) might be off to the races, as the Lancers jumped out to a 12-2 lead with just under three minutes to go in the opening quarter. The scoring run included a pair of buckets by Gavin Evans, and three pointers by Max Hammons and Chayse Overholt. The Aces (5-18) answered with a trey by Boston Tribble and a layup by Jayden Castillo, but Lincolnview scored the final five points of the period on a top of the key triple by Zander Coil and a buzzer-beating bank shot by Marshall Hammons that made it 17-7 after the first quarter.

The Lancers were hampered by missed shots and a handul of turnovers in the second quarter. In fact, Lincolnview had just two baskets in the period – a left elbow jumper by Max Hammons at the 4:45 mark and a putback off of an offensive rebound by Coil at the buzzer, which gave the Lancers a 21-13 halftime lead. In between, a pair of jump shots by Trible trimmed Lincolnview’s lead down to six.

“Give Hicksville credit, they tried to shrink the game down,” Hammons said. “They went zone against us and ran their offense and were running time off the clock and we were struggling to shot the ball in the first half.”

In the third quarter, Marshall Hammons sparked the Lancers with six straight points on a pair of foul shots, a basket on a back door lob and a baseline drive, which gave Lincolnview a 32-15 lead. Jackson Ingledue swished in a three pointer later in the quarter and Hammons once again beat the quarter buzzer with a bucket that pushed lead to 39-20. The 6-3 freshmen finished with a game high 13 points.

In the fourth quarter, Ingledue splashed in three more treys. He finished the night a perfect 4-of-4 from beyond the arc and had 12 points.

“If you look at our box score, we were pretty balanced tonight and that’s a credit to our team,” the elder Hammons said. “I think that’s what makes us kind of difficult to guard at times, when you have that many guys (that can score). It’s a tough guard if we’re making shots and even if a guy is having an off night someone else can step up and we’ve proven that so far this year.”

Lincolnview finished the game 24-of-48 from the floor. Meanwhile the Aces took just 22 shots the entire game but hit 13 of them. However, Hicksville was plagued by 20 turnovers. The Lancers had a 16-12 rebounding advantage in the game. 12 of the boards were offensive rebounds, including five by Evans.

“He’s the one that’s made a huge difference for us,” Hammons said of Evans. “Everyone’s gotten better and everyone’s improved but he’s made a huge leap for us. He causes issues for other teams – he’s a strong kid, athletic, quick and when he gets a rebound we have no issue with him bringing it up the floor.”

The Lancers will face No. 5 seed Tinora in the district semifinals at 7:30 Wednesday night at Defiance High School. The Rams led Wayne Trace by as many as 18 in the fourth quarter, then withstood a late Raider charge for a 55-49 sectional championship victory.

“This is my 14th year and the third time we’ve made it to districts and it’s a different venue,” Hammons said. “We’re used to going to Elida, now we’re going to Defiance and we’ve never played Tinora before so we’ll scout them a little bit see how things go. We’ll prepare ourselves as best as we can for Wednesday night.”

Box score

Lincolnview 19   4  18  19 – 58

Hicksville      7   6    7    9 – 29

Lincolnview: Holden Price 2-0-4; Max Hammons 4-0-9; Zander Coil 1-0-3; Jackson Ingledue 4-0-12; Gavin Evans 3-0-6; Chase Overholt 2-1-7; Marshall Hammons 6-1-13; Emryn Hatfield 1-0-2

Hicksville: Boston Tribble 5-0-12; Collin Leavell 2-0-4; Paxton Yoder 2-0-5; JJ Avalos 2-0-4; Jayden Castillo 2-0-4