Lincoln Academy boys’ basketball coach Ryan Ball saw something burning inside center Cody Tozier on Saturday.

“He had a fire. That’s the best overall game he’s had, the hardest, toughest game he’s played,” Ball said after Tozier’s impeccable second half propelled his team to a 62-53 victory over Wells in a Class B South quarterfinal at the Portland Expo.

“Sometimes he’s been known to get a little frustrated with plays and his teammates, and he was a leader out there.”

Tozier made all six of his field-goal attempts in the second half and was 4 of 4 from the free-throw line, finishing with 21 points as the fourth-seeded Eagles (9-10) finished off the Warriors.

Lincoln advances to the semifinals for a second consecutive year and will face Lake Region at 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the Cross Insurance Arena.

Wells (9-10), the fifth seed, started pounding the ball inside in the third quarter and took its biggest lead at 32-27.

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That’s when Tozier took over, and his young teammates followed. Sophomore reserve guard Keyden Leeman scored 10 points, including the 3-pointer that gave the Eagles the lead for good. Riley Cushing, a junior, added 12 points.

Lincoln Academy made 18 of 26 free throws in the second half to pull away with a 27-point fourth quarter.

“I thought we rotated our kids pretty good in the fourth and no one was tired,” Ball said. “Foul shooting is not our strength always but we work on it every day, (and) we came up big today.”

The 6-foot-4 Tozier was the biggest factor.

“He’s just a size problem for us,” Wells Coach Troy Brown said. “We have some size. But if we have the size, we don’t have the quickness to guard him. So you have to take the lesser of two evils and we went with quickness.”

Owen Berry led Wells with 14 points. Forward Deandre Woods fouled out with nine points.

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“We thought that we might have a little advantage inside, and when we did get it there, they did a nice job of converging on us and making it very difficult for easy buckets,” said Brown, whose team owned a 28-18 edge in points in the paint.

The first half was choppy, with neither team looking sharp offensively. Lincoln Academy led 19-18 at intermission, as Tozier had only five points.

He owned the second half.

“I felt like I was getting the same shots off, the same time, the same openness,” Tozier said. “I just started hitting my stride and started hitting all my shots I was taking in the first half.

“I feel a lot more comfortable. I feel like I’m a leader on the team now and I like it. I like the kids looking up to me.”


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