Defense leads Lincoln past Hayes in Class AA Federation Semi
GLENS FALLS, NY- Having not won a Federation Championship since 2008, the drive for Abraham Lincoln to get the chance to play for the title on Saturday was huge. It has been a focal point for the Railsplitters in their lead up here, and it's been a goal of theirs the better part of this season.
It wasn't going to be easy going up against a sharpshooting Cardinal Hayes team, but closing out on the potent Cardinals shooters in the second quarter allowed them to build up a halftime lead that they never relinquished en route to a 56-47 victory.
Always wanting to bring their best against the champions of the CHSAA, Lincoln wanted to represent the PSAL well and prepared strong for a Cardinal Hayes team that Railsplitters guard Mike Reid '17 said he knew was going to be tough from the perimeter.
"We knew they like to shoot those guards and we knew that ahead of time so we were able to locate every shooter on the court and we rolled with what coach said yesterday," Reid stated.
Closing out and making sure the Cardinal shooters didn't get strong looks was the key, and while they came up big late, it didn't start out that way at the start as Cardinal Hayes found a good rhythm early.
Doing what they have been doing for much of their playoff run, Cardinal Hayes were able to get the long ball going early with Jontai Williams '18 knocking down a pair from long range, and with the Cardinals scoring the last 7 of the quarter to take a 16-12 lead.
After a lackluster defensive performance at the start, Lincoln head man Dwayne "Tiny" Morton implored his team to give a better effort in the second, wanting them to play more aggressive and with more passion. They pressured the ball more and made Cardinal Hayes take contested threes that stopped finding the bottom of the net allowing the Railsplitters to hold down the potent Cardinal offense.
Limiting Cardinal Hayes to just 3 made FT's in the 2nd quarter, Lincoln turned a 4-point deficit into a 26-19 lead into the half.
It wasn't a stellar played game on either side in the opening half, but with the defensive intensity turned up, Morton said he was happy with how his team looked heading into the break, even though he didn't know how good they had played until he came out of the locker room for the start of the 3rd quarter.
"I didn’t know that until I back out to see the book," Morton said. "I wasn’t surprised those guys were missing the shots they were missing. That’s what we have been doing all year."
Morton liked what he saw defensively going into the second half and they were able to continue on that building the lead up to as much as 11 and not letting Cardinal Hayes connect on a three until 1:40 left in the 3rd, nearly 2 full quarters since there last three ball.
Once star guard Joe Toussaint '18 hit one though, his first of the game, Hayes started to get going again and closed the gap to as little as 46-43 with 3:28 to play in the game, and while Donald Flores '17 for Lincoln said a lot of that was due in part because of the bend but don't break play that the Railsplitters sometimes play with, a lot of it Reid said was also because of poor FT shooting that allowed the Cardinals to stay in the game.
"The reason the game was so close was because we missed 15 FT's," Reid stated. "That's horrible."
It could've cost them but as the game wound down Cardinal Hayes struggled to maintain possession as back to back turnovers would cost them chances to draw closer, and when they needed to come up big from the charity stripe late, they did with Flores stepping up and putting the game away down the stretch. It may not have been pretty at all times, but Lincoln now has the chance to win their first Federation Tournament title since 2008 after beating Cardinal Hayes, 56-47.
Big performances from the two senior guards in Reid and Flores helped carry Lincoln late as they had 17 and 15 points respectively in the victory for the Railsplitters.
No one could get on track for Cardinal Hayes as the strong three-point shooting team was limited to just 5 made triples in the game with Toussaint leading the way with 17 points, closing out what was a terrific season for the young and talented Cardinals.
Up next for Abraham Lincoln is Long Island Lutheran on Saturday at 9pm for the Class AA Federation Tournament Championship in what many consider to be a dream matchup. It pits two of the top programs going against one another for the title, and because they haven't won it in 9 years, Morton admits that Saturday is a day he is already looking forward to hoping to bring the hardware back to Coney Island.
"It would be very special. Very special."
