After going into the locker room, down six at the break Abraham Lincoln coach Jason Isaacson challenged his team to up the physicality. They did.
The Lynx made a 10-3 run to start the second half and slowly built their lead from there to take sole first place in the Missouri River Athletic Conference and improve to 9-0.
“The thing from Christmas break now has been defending and rebounding,” Isaacson said. “We want that to be part of our DNA every night, and like tonight, when we do that, we’ll always be in games. Tonight I didn’t think our offense was that efficient, it was kind of a slugfest game, but that’s the beauty when your kids buy in and they defend and rebound, and they just fight for each other. I love where this team’s energy is at.”
The Black Raiders took an early 11-4 lead with a 7-1 run, but Abraham Lincoln responded with a 10-0 run, fueled by treys from Jake Babbitt and Etienne Higgns, to close the first quarter with a 14-11 lead.
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The Black Raiders answered, allowing just two points in the first three minutes of the second quarter as they would double up the Lynx 18-9 in the second quarter to take a 29-23 lead into the break.
One of the key points was AL’s post, Creighton Bracker being held to just two first-half points. The senior knew he would be needed, despite foul trouble toward the end if the Lynx were to prevail and answered the call.
“I knew I need to be more physical and be patient,” Bracker said. “I just did better at getting to my spots, getting to my right hook shot and rebound my butt off and really, just work harder.”
Bracker came to life in the second half scoring 10 second-half points to end his night with 12 points while also collecting 13 rebounds.
The Lynx came out of the locker room with a 10-3 run to take a one-point lead midway through the third quarter. The Black Raiders and Lynx traded a couple of buckets before AL went on to core seven of the next 10 points to take a 46-41 lead midway through the fourth.
Sioux City East would trim it to three at 49-46 with less than three minutes to go, but that was as close as the Lynx let them get for the rest of the night, fending them off for the 60-55 win.
“I love playing with these guys,” Higgins said. “We knew what we had to do, tapped into our next level, and got the job done. We kept saying the tougher team always wins, we knew tonight was in our favor.”
“This is a great team, and just want to keep this going,” Babbitt said. “We all agreed at halftime, we needed to be more physical, and we definitely played more physical in the second half. ”
Higgins led the Lynx with 14 points and Babbitt followed with 13 points. Easton Klement scored 11.
While fighting to keep the undefeated record is nice and all, the Lynx know with Bishop Heelan on Friday and a visit from Gretna on the horizon, there’s plenty of work to still be done.
“We just got to keep working, keep up the effort, and winning games,” Babbitt said.
“We just got to stay focused, keep the main thing, the main thing, and playing hard basketball, that’s what wins games,” Higgins said.
“Just got to keep taking things one day at a time. 9-0 means nothing to us. We want to reach much further than this,” Bracker said.
Coach Isaacson echoes the same mindset. Knowing there are plenty of challenges ahead, Isaacson is constantly looking for things for this team to improve on as they play on, and the postseason draws closer.
“There’s still things to clean up and improve,” Isaacson said. “The second you relax and think too highly of yourself, you’re going to get bit. So, we just want to keep focused, one day at a time. There’s some stuff offensively we’ll work on after film just to clean up some offensive possessions.”
Abraham Lincoln will face Bishop Heelan on Friday at 7 p.m. in Sioux City.
Sioux City East (7-2) 11 18 8 18 – 55
Abraham Lincoln (9-0) 14 9 16 21 – 60
