L-Way Central still working out kinks

FRANKFORT -- Lincoln-Way Central coach Matt Smith unveiled his new fullcourt, helter-skelter brand of basketball, designed to force turnovers and allow his team to shoot threes at any opportunity.

But, unfortunately, for Smith and the Knights, despite forcing 30 Thornton Fractional South turnovers, they were only able to capitalize on 7-of-36 chances from beyond the arc in 97-80 loss to the Rebels on Monday night at the Pheast of the Phoenix Tournament.

On the bright side for Lincoln-Way Central, the undersized Knights outrebounded T.F. South 40-35.

The Knights (0-1) were led on the backboards by junior Evan Branyk. He grabbed 6 rebounds to go with his 12 points.

Brad Bernhard, a 6-3 senior, led Central's offense with 22 points. He made 9-of-17 shots and 2 three-pointers.

The only other double-figurer scorer for the Knights was Sam Mampe. He had 14 points on 5-of-12 shooting.

Michael Jackson topped T.F. South with a game-high 27 points on 9-of-13 shooting.

The Rebels (1-0) were able to pull away from the Knights on some red-hot shooting as they hit 57 percent (37-of-65) for the game. Many of their baskets came off the Central press.

"That was one of the keys to the game," Smith said. "As our press led to too many easy baskets for them. The other thing that hurt us was our poor shooting from the outside.

"When you play this type of offense, you've got to shoot well from 3 and create turnovers."

The Knights return to action at 7:30 p.m. today at the tournament's auxiliary site -- Lincoln-Way West. Central takes on Lincoln-Way West.