Reek Picnic
Tyreek "Reek" Wanamaker,
a transfer from Olney, is a senior at Lincoln with an interest in sports and
journalism. He'd like to see every Pub school have a writer contributing to
this site, but in lieu of that . . he'll keep an eye on the Railsplitters.
We thank Reek for joining our ever-wacky group. |
JAN. 30
ARE THE "BIG THREE" BACK?
Earlier in this season I had proclaimed that
Ronald Rollins, Rickey Savage and Tyrone Martin were Lincoln's
Equivalent of the Celtics' "Big Three" with Savage as the slashing guard, Martin
as the explosive scorer and Rollins as the dominant post presence on offense and
defense, and they shined early on in the season. But as of late the only player
who has been having success is the F Martin, and even he has had a slump where
he had failed to get into the double digits in points. G Rickey Savage had been
struggling due to bad execution and a lack of ball movement on offense and the
lack of plays made on defense. Rollins had struggled to get open looks in the
paint because of bad protection by the guards and some unnecessary fouls and
some whistles by the refs -- i.e., Thursday his fifth foul was picked up on a
play where he had clearly not committed a foul. Martin's struggles were
partially his fault. Martin, who is an excellent shooter when open, had grown
into the tendency to fade away on all his shots and not follow after misses
which led to a big drop in second chance points.
Those struggles peaked against Germantown, a game that might have turned out
to be one of this team's most important. Though the 'Splitters lost it may be
the best thing to happen to them, since the Germantown loss the Splitters are
2-2 including a strong showing against George Washington in which Martin scored
a team and personal high of 35 points, helping the team get back from down 23 in
the 4th, and Thursday's strong showing against Kensington. Those two games were
needed to boost the morale of a team that has sometimes showed flickers of
greatness. Team chemistry is still up and down but things might be coming
together if the scoring of Savage and Martin becomes consistent and with
defensive play of Rollins and F- Kendrick Barnes can come on at the same
time.
Against 2-5 Kensington the Railsplitters seemed to get things under control,
scoring off the opening tipoff with a Savage layup followed by a Rollins block.
The first quarter belonged to Tyrone Martin offensively as he dropped six of his
nineteen points, including a smooth fade-away jumper from the foul line. Rollins
was a force defensively, putting up three blocks to keep the game close early
ending the first down 16-19.
The 'Splitters picked it up in the 2nd starting the quarter off with a
Rollins steal. Savage showed his speed on a fastbreak layup off of a steal of
his own, splitting two defenders and finishing strong, something that the
splitters have been lacking. Rollins dominated the boards picking up 5 Rebs.
including 3 offensive that all lead to scores giving the splitters a 32-26 lead
at the end of the 2nd.
Martin turned it on again in the 2nd half hitting a 3 pointer off an inbound
pass from Kendrick Barnes he would later scoring twice by tipping in missed free
throws.
All three of this teams stars put up big numbers in this one as the
splitters pulled off a 68-53 win. Savage quitley scored 23 points, 2 assists and
1 steal. Rollins and Martin dominated the boards picking up 8 and 11
respectively, Rollins finished with 8 points and Martin added another double
double with 18 points.
JAN. 11
MAKE OR BREAK TIME
If, at the onset of this season, you thought that the
Lincoln Railsplitters would struggle with only one starter from
their
previous team, you were right. This year's team is underachieving and
to tell the truth, there's no excuse. Last Wednesday's game against Germantown
was terrible for a boatload of reasons, but most notably because
this is a team with a whole lot of talent and little oncourt
leadership. In both of their games last week, the 'Splitters seemed
pressed to make a play in situations where it wasn't called for,
forcing bad passes and even worse shots. Their one leader on the
floor, Guard Rickey Savage,
cant do it by himself. Forwards
Tyrone Martin and Ronald
Rollins are stars who have to mesh together to help get
things under control while this season is still salvageable. This
team is in panic mode and they are counting themselves out before
the show even begins.
Another big problem for this team is its lack of using its bench depth to its advantage. G/F
Jack Ferguson snapped for 10 points and a lot of big steals
in the last game and he has to be looked on for more playing time.
He brings a different energy to this team and meshes well with Savage in clutch situations. Guard
Nahjir Robinson should also
be another guy who should be pushing for more playing time, possibly
with him and Savage alternating between the 1 and 2. Robinson shows
the leadership capability that the team needs and is a player that
other players on the court could look to for oncourt inspiration.
He is an excellent jump shooter and a smart, fast player that, along
with Savage, would open up the paint for more big plays by Martin and
Rollins. Two players who also need more playing time are F/C
Marquise Revere and G/F Desjohn Wade. Revere can play both Forward
positions and Center and can be an excellent sub for Rollins when he
gets in foul trouble. Wade is another player with a great jump shot
and could be an excellent spot up shooter out if combined with the
passing of Savage and Robinson.
This team also needs help from its fan base. Most young players,
both high school and college, feed off the energy provided by the
crowd and that element just hasn't been there for this team. In the game versus Mastbaum the bleachers were packed with screaming fans,
but since then it's like no one has enthusiasm for this team anymore.
Players and the school's faculty need to find a way to get more
fans in the seats. One possibility is to have a few games feature free
admission just to get more people to want to come. And the
cheerleaders need to show more enthusiasm.
All of this team's problems are minor and correctable, but every
one of them can snowball into bigger problems and that's not what this
team needs. Tomorrow's game at Washington will
be big in getting momentum for the rest of the season. The 'Splitters
aren't in a win or nothing situation but they have to at least keep
the game close to help rebuild this team's morale.
DEC. 14
NON-LEAGUE
Lincoln 85, Lincoln 61
What's better than your first home game in a new stadium? How 'bout a
decisive win against a talented opponent. Lincoln opened its first season, after
a disappointing 2-15 record, with a guard driven Mastbaum team that is also
coming off a disappointing season. The inexperienced Railsplitters needed
someone to step into the spotlight and take over on a team that brought back one
starter from last year's team, PG David "White
Boy" Burkhart, and step they did. Two guard Rickey
Savage, F Tyrone Martin,
and C Ronald Rollins led the team in
scoring and could possibly be this team's "Big Three".
Savage started the game off hot, scoring 8 of the 'Splitters' first 10 and
adding 2 more assists in the opening six minutes, thus putting the 'Splitters
up, 15-6. The Panthers' own star guard, Juwan Morrison, lit it up and
gave the Panthers a chance to take the lead after a
Burkhart turnover and were up 24-19 at
the end of the first. Lincoln's up-tempo offense overpowered the Panthers and
went on a 12-2 run led by the defense of Rollins and the speed of Savage.
Martin's turn came late in the 2nd scoring 4 of his 10 points and gaining 2
rebounds and 2 steals. Fouls hurt the Railsplitters late, but were kept in the
game by the stubborn defensive play of Martin and Rollins and the offensive play
of Savage as the two teams went to the half tied at 37.
Lincoln's D took over early in the third. Martin continued his stiff
defensive, getting a block and a steal in the opening of the 3rd. Savage got
into the thievery with two more steals that led to 9 consecutive Lincoln points
and a 46-37 in the first 1:48 of the quarter. But once again Mastbaum fought
back. Morrison once again got hot, striking jumpshot after jumpshot to bring his
team within six with 30 seconds left. But bad shot selection and outstanding
rebounding closed this game out as the 'Splitters wound up crushing the
Panthers.