On Tuesday January 6, the Linganore Lancers visited the Thomas Johnson Patriots for their second game of the new year. Fresh off of a win at South Carroll, the Lancers looked for back-to-back victories away from home.
After a rough 0-5 start to the season, Linganore’s JV boys basketball team was finally starting to gain some momentum and came into this game with the same gameplan that got them their first win of the season, which was to outwork the Patriots.
“We needed to play aggressive [sic] and capitalize off our defense for some easy buckets,” Linganore sophomore and Lancer small forward Bryson Lane said.
However, this message was not echoed by the rest of the team. The Lancers fell to a quick 7-0 deficit before sophomore Luke Andrews got them going with a reverse layup off of an out-of-bounds play.
After a defensive stop from the Lancers, Andrews would score another layup after breaking TJ’s wild press to make it a one-possession game. A few possessions later, Freshman number 10 Nate Day-Hemp came off the bench and immediately hit a deep three-pointer for the Lancers.
“When I come off the bench I look to just give the team as much of a spark as I can,” Day-Hemp said. “Whether that’s playing defense or hitting threes, [I’m] just trying to impact the game in a positive way.”
The Lancers would end the first quarter down 14-9.
For the most part, the second quarter was more of the same. The Lancers and Patriots traded baskets in a back-and-forth 2nd period. The Lancers, however, found some life late in the 2nd. TJ’s aggressive defense got them into foul trouble, which saw Linganore entering bonus free-throws and getting easy opportunities to score.
For the last three minutes of the first half, every foul the Patriots committed would lead to free throws for the Lancers. The first Lancer to benefit from this was Andrews, who knocked down two free throws to cut the Patriot lead down to 23-19.
TJ responded with a quick layup on the other end. From this point, Linganore would go on a 6-0 spree, including four free throws from Freshman number 24 Case McKinney and a mid-range jumper from Freshman number 5 E’Zayne White run to tie the game up before halftime.
Linganore went into the break with momentum, and the Lancer hot hand did not show any signs of slowing down in the 3rd quarter. Class of 2028 and number 12 Bryson Lane came right out of halftime and hit a big 3-pointer to give the Lancers their first lead of the game. Lane then dominated the quarter for the Lancers, scoring 11 of his team-high 15 points in the 3rd period.
The Lancers went into the 4th leading 35-32.
The 4th quarter was a completely different story, though. The Patriots went into a zone defense, which the Lancers just could not seem to crack. Linganore only ended up scoring 5 points in the final quarter, while TJ finished off the game with an additional 13 points to win the game 45-40.
The Lancers need to have a short-term memory to put this loss behind them, as they look for a quick turn around playing Frederick high school on January 9.
