Box Score
LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, Pa. —Lincoln's attempt to come back from a 19-point hole fell short Saturday afternoon as the men's basketball team dropped an entertaining game versus Elizabeth City State, 85-76, at Manuel Rivero Hall.
Ladaye Johnson (Wilmington, DE/Hodgson Vo-Tech) (Wilmington, Del./Hodgson Vo.Tech) was the catalyst, scoring 22 points, 16 coming in the second-half comeback effort. Overall, LU had five players in double figures. Damian Hyman (Bronx, NY/Harry S. Truman) (Bronx, N.Y.) and Darren Clark (Boston, MA/Largo) (Boston, Mass./Largo, Md.) had 15 apiece. Dante Blanton-Holcombe (Baltimore, MD/Dunbar) (Baltimore, Md./Dunbar) and Eugene Smith (West Palm Beach, Fl/PennWood ) (West Palm Beach, Fla./Penn Wood) offered 10. Kristin Joyner (Brooklyn, NY/Thomas Jefferson) (Brookly, N.Y./Thomas Jefferson) had a team-high eight rebounds.
Marquie Cook had 21 points for ECSU, who also had five players in double figures.
However, foul shooting was a deciding factor. While Lincoln was 8-of-16 from the charity stripe, Elizabeth City State (13-12) was 23 of 31.
Right off the bat, Smith led the Lions (2-20) to the game's first basket. Just as the fans were trying to savor the taste, Elizabeth City's Cooke scored. It would soon be Clark's turn to give the fans what they wanted by making his free throws to give LU back the lead at 9-7 with 14:29 left in the first half.
Without hesitation, Quintin Spady silenced the crowd with a long-range three. Lincoln's savior during most of the 1st half was making clutch free throws. At 11:33, Angelo Sharpless dunk silenced the LU Lions crowd to give ECSU a nine-point lead at 18-11.
The Vikings would continue its largest lead of the first half at 10 points when Sharpless drained a 3-point shot. As far as the lead and tempo for the first half of the game, ECSU was in the driver's seat, although went on a spurt heading into the locker room when Johnson drained consecutive 3s with two minutes left, and Hyman's free throws helped cut down the lead to 40-31 heading into the intermission.
Eight minutes into the period, the Vikings pushed the lead to 62-43, but two more three-pointers by Hyman and one by Clark brought LU to with 67-43 midway through the half.
Hyman got an offensive board and put-back following a rare Johnson miss on a trey to bring Lincoln within 12 with 6:33 to go. ECSU's B.J. Williams and Johnson traded lay-ups.
A Hyman 3 got LU within single digits at 77-68, and LU got the ball right back on a travelling violation. Two possessions later, Johnson got LU to 77-70 by going coast-to-coast with an uncontested lay-in at the rim.
With 2:35 left of playing Dante came up big-time with a three 79-74, but that was as close as LU would get. In the final seconds, Elizabeth City State would make its free throws to cement the victory.
Lincoln University travels to Virginia Union on Monday and Bowie State on Tuesday before returning home for games against St. Paul's College on Thursday and Friday. Those games at Manuel Rivero Hall will be streamed live on BrandywineRadio.com
— LU —
