Railers beat Danville 55-34 to win
tournament pool as weather postpones tournament
[November 29, 2025]
History was made at the 35th annual Eaton/Lincoln Community
High School Thanksgiving Tournament this year, but it’s not the kind
of history any of the teams would prefer to have happened.
Under its most current format, two pools of teams play in
round-robin fashion during the first four days of the tournament.
The two teams that win their respective pools are then matched up
against each other in the final game of the tournament to determine
the champion.
In most years, a team that posted a perfect 3-0 record to win their
pool in the tournament would advance to play the winner of the other
pool in the tournament championship.
Unfortunately for the Railer boys basketball team, it turned out
that 2025 is not “most years.”
LCHS defeated Danville 55-34 on Friday night to finish pool play
with a perfect 3-0 record. However, due to the issued winter storm
warning and expected bad weather for Saturday, Lincoln Community
High School announced via its Facebook page that “all home and away
events and activities are canceled for Saturday, November 29, 2025.”
As a result, the final four games of the tournament originally
scheduled for Saturday—including the tournament championship
game--have been postponed, meaning there will not be a traditional
championship game on the slated final day of the tournament.
However, all hope for crowning a 2025 champion is not lost.
Belleville West won the other pool of the tournament with a 3-0
record; after the game, Railer coach Neil Alexander said the
administrators from those schools would have a conversation to see
if both teams can find a mutually-agreed upon open in their
schedules on which they could try to schedule a championship game.
Nothing has been set at this point, but if the schedules align and a
date can be worked out, an announcement will be made.
Friday night against Danville, Lincoln jumped out to a quick 2-0
lead on a Karson Komnick field goal before Danville’s Kindyn Mason
hit a three-pointer to give the Vikings a 3-2 advantage. But Komnick
hit another field goal to reclaim the lead for the Railsplitters
before he and Brody Tungate hit consecutive treys for LCHS to give
the Railers a 10-3 lead. Lincoln led 16-8 after the first period.
The Railers maintained that same margin through the second quarter.
The scoring ebbed and flowed slightly, with the Lincoln lead growing
to as much as 10 when Tungate hit another three-pointer for the home
team early in the second quarter. But the squad each tallied nine
points in the stanza, maintaining the same eight point advantage for
the Railers at the end of the first half, 25-17.
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“We were up and down,” Alexander said of his team’s first half
performance. “We went on a streak early and, I think, hit four in a
row early. That gave us a cushion, but there for a while, we
couldn’t break that seven-, eight-, nine-point barrier.”
The third quarter began in the same way the first half had been
played, with Lincoln maintaining a lead that slightly grew and
shrank through the period but remained around the same margin.
Danville pulled to within six at 25-19 when A'Jani Davis hit a free
throw about two minutes into the frame. But Lincoln went on a 15-4
run to balloon the lead to 40-23 just before the close of the third
quarter. Junior Breon McKinnie hit a pair of three-pointers and
classmate Bryce Vlahovich added a pair of field goals to led the
Railer scoring outburst.
Lincoln outscored Danville 15-8 in the quarter to hold a 40-25 lead
heading into the final stanza.
The Railsplitters opened the quarter with a 13-5 spurt and outscored
the Vikings 15-9 in the frame for a 55-34 final margin of victory.
Komnick led Lincoln in the quarter with eight points and Tungate
added seven.
The Railers were led by Komnick and Tungate with 23 and 19 points,
respectively. McKinnie added six, Vlahovich had four and Tate Aue
hit a trey to add three points.
Danville was led by Amir Beasley with 10 points.
Lincoln shot 47.7 percent from the field on 21-of-44 shooting,
including 10 of 23 on three-pointers. Lincoln was outrebounded 28-22
with Komnick leading LCHS with six boards. Danville committed 16
turnovers while Lincoln had eight miscues.
The win gives Lincoln a 3-0 record, and with the postponement of
Saturday’s games, the Railers will play their next contest Tuesday,
December 2 at Sacred Heart-Griffin.
Alexander said he sees potential for this squad to put together a
strong season.
“I’m excited for this group,” he said. “We’ve got to continue doing
what we always do. We’ve still got a lot of things defensively where
we just get out of position and get hurt. But they’re still active.
“So far the kids have done an outstanding job. I think people will
enjoy watching them; they’re fun to watch.”
[Loyd Kirby]
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