At times, basketball is a game of runs, and the Lincoln boys basketball team ran — straight to a state title.
The Railsplitters used a second-quarter surge en route to a 80–63 victory over Long Island Lutheran in the New York State Federation “AA” title game at the Glens Falls Civic Center on March 25. It was Lincoln’s first state title for Lincoln since 2008, and the high point of a season that was all about getting back to the top.
“They’re a very tough team, I didn’t think the outcome was going to be like that,” said senior guard Donald Cannon-Flores. “I thought it was going to be a very close game, but we’re tough and we out-played them.”
Both squads came out sprinting from the opening tip, swapping points and leads for much of the first quarter. All that changed in the second period.
Lincoln didn’t just slow down the pace of the game, the squad stopped it completely. The Railsplitters pushed the ball over halfcourt, only to stand there for the first 20 seconds of the shot clock, waiting for the play to develop. It was an unconventional approach, but one that helped Lincoln seize the game’s momentum.
“I was trying to see what he was going to do,” said Railsplitters coach Dwayne “Tiny” Morton. “I didn’t think he had the guards to press up and I thought my kids were going to fall into the defense he was trying to play, stay back and wait for us to come at them.”
The Railsplitters wrapped up the second quarter on a 13–2 run and went into halftime ahead by 10 points and certain the game had turned in their favor.
“A lot of teams scouted us this year so I kind of changed up every time we played,” Morton said. “We did something different and that’s what [Long Island Lutheran coach John Buck] said; he knew I changed it up on them.”
In the third quarter, the Railsplitters played lockdown defense, forcing numerous turnovers as the Crusaders were unable to work the ball inside.
Lincoln gave up just nine points in the period while dominating on the offensive glass, getting second- and third-chance shots at the basket on their way to building a 22-point cushion going into the fourth.
“Coach has the best defensive plan,” said senior Mike Reid, who finished with 13 points and two steals. “The best thing we could do was take away their point guard. We denied him the whole game and after that we shut down their offense. It was great.”
But Long Island Lutheran didn’t go down without a fight, going on its own run early in the fourth quarter and making it a nine-point game with 4:36 left on the clock. Then Lincoln’s defense re-awakened. The Railsplitters dropped back into full-court pressure and once again, Cannon-Flores was the hero, connecting on a three-point play to push the lead back to double digits.
“Coach always preaches that we bend, but we don’t break,” said Cannon-Flores, who finished with a game-high 21 points. “So we bend a little bit, they made their run and the game is made of runs. We just had to make our run to end the game.”
Lincoln didn’t lose a single game in New York this season and is basking in the glory of that achievement.
“Since we came up here [to Glens Falls] coach was talking about [winning] a lot,” Reid said. “We were undefeated in the city and the state. It feels fantastic.”
