Jessee’s 30 leads Lancers past Parkway

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

ROCKFORD — Lincolnview’s Creed Jessee and Parkway’s Dylan Hughes put on quite a show during Saturday’s non-conference matchup at Parkway High School.

Jessee scored 30 points and pulled down eight rebounds and Hughes poured in 42 points and had nine rebounds, but it was the state-ranked Lancers (No. 14, Division IV) who came out on top, 76-70.

“I thought our kids played hard tonight,” Lincolnview head coach Brett Hammons said. “We didn’t always do everything right and give credit to Parkway for that, but we did do just enough right to find a way to win.”

Jessee, a 6-1 senior guard, went to work in the first quarter, scoring 11 points, including a trey that gave the Lancers a 14-7 lead. Hughes, Caden Slusher and Gabe Schaaf each scored to tie the game 14-14, but Lincolnview’s Collin Overholt drained a triple and Clayton Leeth converted a pair of foul shots to give the Lancers a 19-14 lead at the end of the period.

The second quarter featured more fireworks by Jessee, who drilled his first three trey attempts of the quarter plus a conventional two point basket to give the Lancers a 30-18 advantage. After a bucket by Slusher and one by Leeth, Jessee rained in another triple to give Lincolnview a 35-22 lead.

When the halftime buzzer sounded, Jessee had scored 25 points and the Lancers (10-2) enjoyed a 40-29 lead.

“For the second night in a row we dug ourselves a hole, down eleven at half,” Parkway head coach Doug Hughes said. “We played with defensive intensity in the second half and we battled extremely hard in the second half.”

Parkway (5-8) opened the third quarter with a 10-1 scoring run that trimmed Lincolnview’s lead to just two, 41-39. Hughes scored five of those points, while Trent Rollins hit a key three-pointer during the run. However, Aaron Cavinder’s trey and a basket by Jake Bowersock extended Lincolnview’s lead back to seven, 46-39, then after a bucket by Slusher, Overholt drilled a triple that gave the Lancers a 49-41 lead. Slusher finished with 16 points Hughes scored four of Parkway’s remaining six points in the period, all from the foul line. As a team, the Panthers were 12-of-16 from the free throw line.

Overholt finished with 18 points and the Lancers connected on 11-of-20 three point attempts in the game, compared to 6-of-16 by the Panthers.

The Lancers led 53-47 to start the fourth quarter and both teams scored 23 points in the final period, with Hughes supplying 19 of Parkway’s points. At one point, Lincolnview’s lead ballooned back out to 12, 61-49, and Parkway wasn’t able to draw any closer than six points.

Jessee, who was scoreless in the third quarter scored all five of his remaining points from the foul line in the fourth quarter and as a team, Lincolnview converted 17-of-21 free throws in the game, and the Lancers finished with a 29-22 rebounding advantage.

“I thought our guys were very good from the free throw line in the fourth quarter,” Hammons said. “Our defense struggled tonight but give them credit they did a good job of finding ways to score.”

“Creed Jessee was absolutely on fire in the first half as he had 25 at intermission,” the elder Hughes said. “We changed the way we were playing him and held him to five in the second half. Dylan did a much better job defending Creed and then hit some big shots to keep us in the game as we battled back, and Caden Slusher and Trent Rollins continued their fine play for the Panthers.”

Parkway is slated to host Waynesfield-Goshen on Monday and Lincolnview is scheduled to host No. 2 ranked Columbus Grove in a key Northwest Conference game on Tuesday night. Both teams are 3-0 in the NWC.

Scoring summary

Parkway HS 14 15 18 23 – 70
Lincolnview 19 21 13 23 – 76

Parkway: Gabe Schaaf 3-0-6; Dylan Hughes 14-11-42; Caden Slusher 7-1-16; Trent Rollins 2-0-6

Lincolnview: Clayton Leeth 3-3-9; Aaron Cavinder 1-4-7; Collin Overholt 5-5-18; Landon Price 1-0-2; Daegan Hatfield 1-0-2; Jake Bowersock 4-0-8; Creed Jessee 9-5-30.