Lincoln Prep earns road sweep at Madison
The Lincoln Prep Panthers and Lady Panthers walked out of Madison’s home gym with a pair of road wins on Tuesday, improving each team’s power rating and extending their respective winning streaks.
The Lady Panthers (7-11) may have needed a comeback effort but knocked off Madison 43-39 to win their fourth game in a row with stingy defense and a stronger presence inside the paint.
Prep trailed 26-18 at halftime with missed layups holding them back and slowly clawed back in it to outscore Madison 25-13 in the second half, including 15-6 in the fourth. Trailing by as many as 10 in the fourth, Prep used a 10-0 run with two minutes left to fight back and eventually pull ahead in the closing minutes to win it.
And while the Lady Panthers only made 10 of their 42 free throws, seven came in the fourth.
Jayleen Spann scored 14 points, while Asijah Wright scored 13 points in the win.
Head coach Fred Hearn was pleased his group didn’t let a late deficit keep them down.
“I’m happy that we won because that’s a game where in the past we might have gotten down and wouldn’t want to push ourselves out of it. They’re starting to believe,” Hearn said. “We lost a couple games early, but we were competitive and I think once we got to our identity of playing inside-out, it gave the girls something to buy in on.
“And I think we’re guarding well. I think we can guard anybody. It’s a matter of us not turning it over and making free throws and executing,” he added.
The Lady Panthers have moved up to 16th in the Division IV Select power ratings, which, if the playoffs ended today, would mean they would host a playoff game.
BOYS
Panthers ……............................ 61
Madison ……….......................... 58
The Lincoln Prep Panthers (7-7) took down No. 11 Madison 61-58 in overtime to win their fourth game in a row and vault to No. 8 in the Division IV Select power ratings.
Naturally, the game was tight all the way through with Prep leading 17-11 after the first quarter before Madison tied the game at 27-27 heading into halftime. Out of the break, the Panthers continued to inch ahead and lead 41-40 heading into the fourth. Madison would then rally and force the game to overtime tied at 52-52. In the extra period, the Panthers outscored Madison 9-6 to steal a big win on the road.
Devin Burton led Prep with 16 points, while Trey Spann scored 13 points. Stephen Burks rounded out the doubledigit scorers with 12 points.
“I think it was a well-needed game for us,” Prep head coach Antonio Hudson said. “ We had some players get some confidence and a pep to step and we were making shots. This was a game where we had multiple players scoring in double digits which is always better than one person leading the way. We executed in some clutch moments, and we handled adversity well.”
The Panthers are back in action Saturday as they host Gibsland-Coleman at 7 p.m.
