East Peoria, Ill.---The ICC men's basketball team suffered a tough 83-80 loss to Lincoln Land in M-WAC action on Saturday afternoon at Ramsey Gym. The Cougars held the lead for nearly the entire game but could not close it out as LLCC rallied to steal the win. The loss dropped ICC to 8-11 overall while Lincoln Land moved to 5-15.
The Cougars opened up a 14-5 lead just minutes into the game but LLCC drew back to trail by just one at 24-23. The Cougars went on a run to open up a 38-28 lead and took a 42-30 halftime lead on a
Lavell McIntosh layup just before the buzzer sounded.
ICC started out the second half with their offense in sync as
Jacquan Binion found
Josiah Getz and
Lavell McIntosh for layups on nifty screen and rolls to widen their lead to 60-42 with 15:42 to play. However, the Loggers answered with a run to close their deficit to 65-61 with just under 10 minutes left.
The teams battled evenly down the stretch with the Cougars leading 78-77. After LLCC was assessed a technical foul,
Zach Lewkowski hit both free throws to put ICC up 80-77 with 2:48 to play but unfortunately, those were the last points the Cougars would score. LLCC answered with a basket to pull to within 80-79 and the Cougars still maintained the lead until LLCC got an old-fashioned three-point play on a transition layup to take their first lead of the game at 82-80 with :32 seconds left.
ICC had a layup attempt blocked on their next possession so took the ball out of bounds underneath their own basket. The Cougars got a great look at a layup that rimmed out and they were forced to foul. The Loggers made one free throw with :05 seconds to go up 83-80 but missed the second; ICC dribbled the length of the floor for an open three-pointer that hit the back iron as the buzzer sounded for the final outcome.
Leaders
Lavell McIntosh 15 pts, 8 reb
Kyle Hawthorne 15 pts, 5 reb
Zach Lewkowski 9 pts, 3 asts
Jacquan Binion 4 pts, 3 asts
Next up: The Cougars will return to action on Monday, Feb. 7 as they travel to Ina, IL to play Rend Lake at 6pm.
