L-Way C. turns ball, game over
NEW LENOX -- After jumping out of the starting blocks quickly, the Lincoln-Way Central High School boys basketball team fell victim to a series of second-half turnovers and dropped a 59-53 decision to Tinley Park on Tuesday night.
Central (4-12) coughed the ball up 17 times in the second half and eight times in the fourth quarter.
The result: The Knights squandered leads of 17-5 and 26-18.
Tinley Park (9-8) rallied in the third quarter to go ahead 42-38 on a three-point play by Roosevelt Green as time expired. He went on to score a game-high 19 points on 8-of-21 shooting.
The Titans made 9-of-13 shots in the third quarter outscored Lincoln-Way 24-12.
Then, in the fourth quarter, the Knights trailed by as much 44-38 before mounting a run of their own. Jordan Miller's layup put Central back on top 47-46 with 4:32 left. He made 8-of-10 shots and finished with 17 points. He also grabbed 8 rebounds.
Green, a 5-foot-10 junior guard, took over for Tinley Park down the stretch. He scored 8 points in an 11-2 run. The run put the Titans on top 57-49 with :51 remaining.
And Central could not recover.
Trevor Branyik added 13 points for the Knights. Larry McMullin had 10 points and 8 rebounds.
Gerald Dorsey scored 13 points for Tinley Park. Kourtney Jenkins had 10 points and 6 rebounds.
"We attacked their pressure early and were effective," Central coach Matt Smith said. "It was a mirror-image of the first time we played them, where we got up early and squandered a big lead (Central dropped an 85-79 decision to Tinley Park on Dec. 28 at Lincoln-Way East's Medieval Classic)."
Smith pointed to the Knights' inconsistency.
"Our season's story is we play well for portions of games," he said. "But we can't get away with these poor stretches. Jordan (Miller) played well.
"We've been stressing to look into the post. Their pressure didn't allow it. After we look at the film, I'm sure we're going to see we need to give him the ball more. It was a tie game with 3 minutes left. We didn't execute. They were more determined than us when it came to loose balls down the stretch."
