Injuries plague Lynx in Pirate loss

Senior standout Nathan Brown sat out the pre-game warm-up shoot around to rest his sore ankle, hurt in practice last week. In obvious pain, Brown still took the floor in the first quarter Jan. 3 and led his team to a nice lead over the visiting Victor Pirates basketball squad.

Midway in the second quarter, Brown crashed into a pile of players under the Lynx bucket and when the scrim was sorted out, everyone got up except him. Bring out the ice and signal freshman Hayden Dempster to sub in for the rest of the game.

Brodi Henderson, an athletic junior who transferred to Lincoln last year, carried the team for the rest of the game as floor leader, but it took the Lincoln men some time to adjust. Outscored 4-14 in the second quarter, that ten-point deficit could not be overcome even though the Lynx did match up with the Pirates for the rest of the game. The final score, 24–34, reflected the ten-point mismatch that resulted when Brown was first injured.

High scoring Lynx players were Brodi Henderson with 11 and Ryan Greenwood with six. The Victor Pirates had a much deeper bench, but Coach Shane Brown had eighth grader Wesson Dempster, one of the tough, hustling Dempster brothers, so the Lynx were able to hold their own until the final buzzer.

Junior Bradley Howard ramped up his intensity, scored five points and canned a three-pointer that fired up the crowd. Six-foot-three tall tower Trenton Grantier added two points and a healthy number of rebounds.

The game would have been a lot closer if the Lynx had made more free throws. The Lincoln stat of 33 percent success from the line could not match the 75 percent from the charity stripe of the Victor team. The next Lynx home game is 4 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 11 against the Seeley Swan Black Hawks.