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2016 could be difficult for starless Lincoln, Nazareth

The Abraham Lincoln boys basketball team is hoping for a happier holiday than Nazareth’s girls hoops squad.

The Lady Kingsmen head into Christmas coping with the realization that Virginia Commonwealth-bound guard Niya Johnson will miss the rest of the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. What they originally thought was just a sprain has proven to be much worse and will keep her out for the season.

Nazareth has struggled without her 25 points per game — it has already suffered league losses to Christ the King, Archbishop Molloy, and Bishop Loughlin. There is certainly a hole to dig out of if it hopes to earn the league’s Class AA playoff spot.

An overtime victory over Francis Lewis last weekend was a sign of hope — Nazareth closed out a tight game, which it failed to do earlier this season.

The team is learning how it must play without Johnson on the court. And now her impending return is no longer a distraction — help is not on the way, but there enough remaining talent for Nazareth to help itself.

Lincoln is hoping it won’t be forced into a similar situation with Jahlil Tripp. The talented wing is still ineligible to play after the Public School Athletic League denied his initial request for a fifth season. He was hit by a stray bullet to the right calf two years ago, and a month later, he broke his left tibia in two places, costing him nearly his entire junior season at Brooklyn Collegiate.

He now has a lawyer working to get him back on the court for Lincoln.

Tripp may not get a final answer until Jan. 6, according to Railsplitters’ athletic director Renan Ebeid. If denied a second time, Tripp has said he will likely transfer to a prep school.

The Railsplitters are not an elite club without Tripp in the lineup next to Caheim Brown. After watching Lincoln lose to George Westinghouse at home on Dec. 15, it is at most the third-best team in the division at the moment. It looked unorganized, small, and lacking the cohesion it showed this summer with Tripp.

Division leader Thomas Jefferson was a basket away from beating Chino Hills (Calif.) — the No. 2-ranked team in the country — at the City of Palms Classic last week. It is playing much better basketball right now than Lincoln, which has already lost two division games.

There is still too much talent in Coney Island to completely rule out the Railsplitters. Returning coach Dwayne “Tiny” Morton has preached patience and says he is still learning what makes his players tick. They are also still learning to play for him — and without Tripp, who averaged 17 points and 12 rebounds last season.

Nazareth took a major step toward learning how to beat good teams without its star, but Lincoln hasn’t shown that just yet. It may not have to if it gets some good news this New Year.

If it does not finally get to unwrap Tripp, then Lincoln and Nazareth will both be spending 2016 trying to turn their seasons around without their top stars.