Patriots hold off Danville Admirals 48-42 to reach district finals

by Nancy LeedyA chorus of “We Want Boyle!” rose from the Lincoln County student section as the final 22.7 seconds ticked off the clock Wednesday night.It wasn’t until those last seconds that the Lincoln boys were finally able to close out a nailbiter in their 45th District Tournament semifinal, advancing to Friday’s championship game with a 48-42 victory over Danville.Luke Hill, who led the Patriots with 19 points, drove inside to score the game’s final field goal with 2:27 remaining to break a 40-all tie, but it would be the last shot to fall. As the clock fell under 30 seconds, the Admirals were forced to foul and Hill and Trenton Edgington, who finished with 15 points, delivered at the line, sinking six free throws for the win.“We knew coming in that it was going to be the type of game it was. We call them gut wins or grinder games, and you have to win those this time of year to advance,”¿said Lincoln coach Jeff Jackson. “Both games we played (in the regular season) were close and we know they’ve got a very good basketball team. They are very well coached, and they have a star in (Tryston) Ford. They just hang around and hang around.”Before Lincoln (19-12) could advance to the title game against Boyle County, Tryston Ford, who had a game-high 20 points for Danville, attempted to answer Hill’s final bucket and force the sixth tie of the game but missed. Rob Caudill got the grab off the miss, then Christian Gateskill-Fuqua tried to give the Admirals their first lead of the game with a 3-point shot from the wing. But the trey bounced off the glass and Hill grabbed the rebound for Lincoln. Danville (13-15) got another shot at a tie after a Devonta Alcorn defensive grab, but again the Admirals would miss their target, with a Damir Karapandzic miss pulled down by Jacob Conway. After a couple fouls by Danville, Edgington calmly knocked down two free throws off a Ford foul to give the Patriots a 44-40 advantage with 22.7 seconds left. Gateskill-Fuqua picked up two free throws off a Hill foul at the 14.8-second mark then it was Hill stepping up to finish, sinking four straight free throws for the 48-42 final.“We played six kids tonight and they all really played hard, and Trenton and Luke finished out the great effort by stepping up and making those big, big free throws,”¿Jackson said.Lincoln was 8-for-8 from the foul line in the fourth quarter and 9-for-10 overall.“At the end of the game, we had to put them on the free throw line,” Danville coach Andrew Zaheri said. “And, if you have to put Lincoln County on the free throw line you’re just about done in. Coach Jackson does such a good job that, if it’s a two-point or three-point ball game, you’re going to really have to make some plays. Credit to them. They’re always just calm. It’s really hard to unnerve them and, in the end, they always knock down their free throws.”“This really was anybody’s game. This was definitely one of those games where you wish you had a few points cushion.” The closeness of the game was reflected by a margin of one to three points for most of the night and a lead of no more than four points until Hill’s final two foul shots.  But it was also reflected in several of the game statistics. Lincoln and Danville were even on the boards with 28 apiece, Hill and Ford each getting nine rebounds. Danville had six turnovers and Lincoln had nine, and the Patriots had four steals to the Admirals’ three. The two teams also shot well at the foul line, with Lincoln at 90 percent and Danville at 87 percent (13-for-15).“We do kind of mirror each other,” said Zaheri. “We both have a good post player and we both have some perimeters that can knock shots down. It was just one of those things tonight where they hit more shots.”That would be the biggest difference for the two teams. Lincoln was at 50 percent from the field, making good on 19 of 38 field goal attempts while Danville was held to just 29.5 percent, going 13-for-44.“They shot 29 percent from the floor and that’s pretty good defense,” said Jackson. “I wasn’t overall really, really pleased with our defensive effort because I¿thought we let them get in the lane, but I thought the last four minutes of the game we defended pretty daggone good.”Both teams shot well in the first quarter. Lincoln, which got off to a 6-2 start, connected on nine of 13 shot attempts in the first while Danville made six of eight. Ford and Caudill both hit 3-pointers in the first to keep the Ads within 19-16.Scoring dropped off over the second and third quarters with seven points the most tallied by either team. Lincoln led 26-23 at the half after a 7-7 second quarter and Danville edged the Patriots 7-6 in the third to make it 32-30 heading into the final frame.Ford kept the Danville offense firing in the fourth, scoring 10 of the Admirals’ 12 points. The score was tied four times in the fourth - at 32, 34, 36 and 40 - before Hill hit to put Lincoln on top for good and set up a Lincoln-Boyle final.“Coming over here we really liked our chances to win tonight,” Zaheri said. “But, that being said, we knew it was going to be a nailbiter. We felt like it was going to come down to the end of the game and that’s exactly what happened.” “Obviously we’re disappointed but I’m so proud for how hard they fought. We gave ourselves a shot to win. and thats all you can hope for,”¿he said. “Tonight, I think they gave me everything that was in their tank. They did a few things that, as a coaching staff, we’ve asked them to do as far as diving for loose balls and putting bodies on bodies. We played physical. That being said, we didn’t lose our composure either.”As the Admirals boarded the bus and headed home and workers began cleaning a near-empty gymnasium, Jackson kicked back in the Lincoln locker room and breathed a sigh of relief knowing that his Patriots had accomplished a goal set before the season started.   “It was a good win for our kids, a great win for our kids because it means we’re playing next week,”¿said Jackson. “At the start of the season, we set a goal of advancing in district and getting a chance to play in the region. We beat a good basketball team tonight in Danville and we get to keep playing.”