Lincoln, Bethel final score officials high school basketball | The News Tribune

BOYS BASKETBALL

No. 2 Lincoln 89, Bethel 51: A strange set of circumstances brought the Abes and Bethel together Wednesday. The two teams had been set to play Tuesday only to find they were missing a key component: the officials.

That’s right, the game had to be rescheduled because as it turns out it’s rather hard to play a game without anyone officiating. Still, Bethel took it in stride.

“It threw a little bit of a curveball at us,” Bethel assistant coach Jack Murrey said. “We just ended up having a later practice last night. It didn’t really affect us too much except we gotta play back to back games now.”

That means both teams will need to bounce back after what was a blowout win by Lincoln, which improved to 19-0.

It was another incredibly balanced scoring effort for the Abes. Le’Zjon Bonds scored 13 points, Willie Thomas had 12 and Anthony Braggs Jr., Emmett Linton and Daemon Dillingham each had 10 points, Julien Simon had nine and Jakhai Dillingham scored eight.

“We started the game really hot and led early,” Murrey said. “Elijah Mackie had some big plays early on.”

Mackie would finish the game 12 points, the most for his team.

“It being our senior night, we had seniors fired up and ready to play,” Murrey said. “Then our turnovers ended up being our Achilles heel.”

That showed in how the Abes scored 43 points in the first half while Bethel only got 16 points.

“We just couldn’t take of the ball,” Murrey said. “Especially for an athletic team that likes to run the court you don’t want to give them transition buckets.”

Evergreen Lutheran 58, Pope John Paul 52: Jay Sullivan scored a game-high 16 points for Pope John Paul as his team came up short in a loss to the Eagles.

“We were playing without our center and our leading scorer fouled out with 6 and a half minutes to go in the fourth quarter,” Pope John Paul assistant coach Jim Luthy said. “They just slowly came back on us. We were playing pretty shorthanded in fourth.”

Pope John Paul was leading 30-21 at the half only to see that lead slip away despite the strong play by Sullivan.

“Jay actually has been playing really well in the last few games. He’s playing very confidently,” Luthy said. “It’s primarily running the floor cause he’s our point guard but he’s been penetrating as well as sharpshooting his three-pointers as well.”

That wasn’t enough to keep his team in it as the team just couldn’t hold on to their lead getting outscored 37-22 in the second half.