Railer boys basketball team collects 5th straight win with 40-30 defeat of Taylorville

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[February 03, 2025]  LINCOLN – As the basketball season winds down, teams can play themselves into or out of a better seeding for the postseason based on their wins and their performances against particular opponents.

While the Railer game against Taylorville was a bit slower-paced and perhaps even sluggish at times, the important outcome for Lincoln was in getting the win, defeating the Tornadoes 40-30.

Both teams came into the game moving in different directions: Taylorville had lost 3 of its last 4 contests while Lincoln had won four straight games. However, Lincoln was without its Top 2 point guards, as Brody Tungate continued to recover from an injury and Brady Miller was out due Saturday night to illness.
 


As a result, Lincoln head coach Neil Alexander was forced to juggle his lineup, a task with which he has become quite familiar this season due to the Railers’ numerous injuries. In the end, Alexander called on senior Drew Hayes to run the Railer offense against Taylorville. While perhaps an unconventional choice, Hayes often brings the ball up court when the Railers face pressure defenses from opponents. Not only does he present matchup problems for opponents, Hayes’ 6-foot-5 frame allows him to see over the defense more so than a traditionally-sized point guard.

The downside of the move is that rotating Hayes out to point guard meant that Alexander would have to shuffle his lineup elsewhere to compensate for the loss of Hayes down low.

Head Coach Neil Alexander

“That was a makeshift lineup,” Alexander said after the game. “There was not a true point guard out there. We had to just make due, and we were able to execute enough to get things done. A lot of those kids were out of position today.”

After a one-game hiatus from the starting lineup Friday night against Mattoon due to illness, senior Gabe Smith returned to start Saturday night. In addition, Karson Komnick and Frank Sanders continued mending from their injuries and started for the Railers.

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Rounding out the first five for Lincoln was senior Blake Horn, originally projected this season as a reserve but who has shined on numerous occasions in filling several roles for the Railers as they continued to fight back from injuries and other ailments.

The results with the makeshift lineup were mixed. Taylorville scored the first two points of the game to take an early lead, but the Railers tallied the next nine points and led wire to wire after retaking the lead. Sanders showed flashes of dominating the boards. Lincoln’s defense tied the season mark it set the previous night against Mattoon by holding Taylorville to only 30 points. But the Railers only hit two three-pointers in tallying 40 points of their own on the night.

“It’s hard to call an offense when you take your quarterback out,” Alexander said. “We’ll be fine. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but we’re running out of time. Three more weeks and the season’s over.”

The Railers led 8-2 after one quarter and 17-6 at intermission. Taylorville hovered around a 10-point deficit most of the second half, cutting the lead to single digits in the fourth quarter before losing 40-30.

Karson Komnick

Komnick led Lincoln with 12 points while Horn added 11. Sanders tallied 8, Hayes scored 6 and Smith contributed 2. With its fifth straight win, Lincoln improves to 15-8 on the season overall.

Owen Younker led Taylorville with nine points. The Tornadoes fall to 12-12 overall with the loss.

The Railers face one of their biggest tests of the season as they are scheduled to play five games over a six day span. That stretch of games begins February 6 when Lincoln hosts Glenwood in a makeup game that was rescheduled from January 10 due to inclement weather. The remaining contests in the upcoming five-games include:

• Fri 2/7 - 7 PM - Away @ Eisenhower

• Sat 2/8 - 2:30 PM - Away @ Lanphier

• Mon 2/10 - 7 PM - Home vs. Bloomington

• Tue 2/11 - 7 PM - Away @ Sacred Heart-Griffin

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