Lincoln Academy’s Casey Duncan drives to the basket past Lake Region’s Jackson Libby during the Eagles’ 70-41 win in a Class B South boys’ basketball quarterfinal on Friday at the Portland Expo. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer
Playing against an unknown opponent, the Lincoln Academy boys’ basketball team treated the first half of Friday’s Class B South quarterfinal against Lake Region as a kind of feeling-out period. Once the Eagles had seen the Lakers in action on the Portland Expo court, they pulled away for a 70-41 win.
“You’ve got to figure it out in the game. It takes the first couple of quarters to figure out how to break down their defense and get the offense going,” Lincoln senior guard Gabe Hagar said. “The press really kicked in after halftime. We were playing good team defense.”
No. 2 Lincoln, now 16-3, will face No. 3 York (16-3) at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Expo in the regional semifinal. No. 10 Lake Region, which upset No. 7 Wells in the preliminary round, ends the season at 8-12.
“We didn’t move the ball on offense in the first half as well as I’d like. We took care of the ball and got our easy shots. We weren’t real hot outside,” Lincoln Coach Ryan Ball said.
The Eagles led 31-18 at the half, and a layup by Jackson Libby cut the Lakers’ deficit to 34-26 midway through the quarter. That was as close as Lake Region would get. Lincoln scored 17 straight points over the next two and a half minutes to pull away. Lincoln’s pressure forced five Lake Region turnovers over the stretch, and 22 in the game.
“They’re long, they’re strong, they’re a bunch of seniors who have been together a long time, and their pressure really hurt us today. We tried a couple different things, but their pressure was the difference in the game,” Lake Region Coach Ryan Martin said.
The Eagles outrebounded the Lakers, 38-30, including 17 offensive rebounds. Lucas Houghton had 14 rebounds for Lincoln, including nine offensive, to go with 14 points. Hagar led the Eagles with 21 points, with 14 coming in the second half. EJ Hunt added 13 points.
“We were kind of moving away from passing the ball well in the first half. We did better in the second half, and that allowed us to really open the floor and take (shots) off cuts,” Hagar said. “Obviously our defense forced turnovers and we capitalized.”
Libby scored 12 points for Lake Region, while Brock Gibbons added 10.
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