Lincoln Uses Higher Gear to Win Title

Call it what you want--The Sting?--because nobody on the Lincoln High School boys’ basketball team knows quite how to explain those spurts when Carl Gaines takes over. He plays like an all-world player for one or two minutes, and Lincoln looks like a team that cannot be beaten.

Whatever they’re called, those quick scoring runs have been the explanation for quite a few Lincoln victories lately.

Saturday was no different. Gaines and Lincoln went into this mode three times, and that was enough to beat Lemoore, 80-68, in the Southern California Regional Division III final at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

Lincoln (26-2) will play Daly City, winner of the Northern California Regional, in the state finals next Saturday at the Oakland Coliseum. Lemoore finished at 17-9.

The score may have indicated a close game, but it really wasn’t. Lincoln led, 72-47, at one point before Lemoore made the score more respectable during fourth-quarter garbage time. Three previous scoring streaks had long since put the game out of Lemoore’s reach.

“I don’t know what it is,” said Gaines, who finished with 20 points on 10-of-18 shooting. “I feel like I’m the team leader, and I have to get the team going.”

Said forward Joe Temple: “It always pumps me up.”

Starting forward Roger Johnson nodded. “It’s like, if he’s going to play that well, why can’t I play that well, too? It gets us fired up to see Carl like that.”

That’s usually how it works. Gaines gets a couple of quick baskets off the fast break and then his teammates start playing harder and get into the act themselves.

The result is deadly. Lincoln used an eight-point run late in the San Diego Section final and beat Ramona, 71-63. Against Golden West in the Thursday’s semifinal, Coach Ron Loneski leaned over and whispered to reporters, “Watch what happens now,” right before his team made a 24-18 lead 42-23 in about three minutes.

The most impressive run Saturday was in the middle of the second quarter. After Lincoln took a 12-2 lead, Lemoore cut it to 23-17. Their success didn’t last for long.

Gaines made a layup after a steal. Then he scored on a fast break. And then again. Lemoore made a couple of turnovers. Temple, a junior who finished with 16 points and 9 rebounds, rebounded a missed fast-break layup and put it in.

By the time it was over, Lincoln led, 35-19.

It happened again at the start of the third quarter. After leading at halftime, 40-28, Lincoln went on a 16-8 tear and put the game out of reach when Johnson scored inside with 4:06 left in the period.

“We knew they’d run,” Lemoore Coach Jim Gordan said. “But maybe not quite that well. I think our kids were intimidated by their quickness in the first quarter. We didn’t seem to challenge them. They just ran by us.”

Loneski had another explanation for why Lincoln always seems to come out firing in the second half.

“I went to a clinic once with Bobby Knight,” Loneski said. “He said the most important part of a game is the first two minutes of the second half. Our kids understand that.”

But that can’t be the only reason. Gordan said he told his players the same thing.

Maybe it has something to do with Loneski’s other explanation.

“Our offense is totally generated by defense,” he said. “But our defense seems to pick up when our offense is playing well.”

Lincoln’s defense played well the entire game. Lemoore star Tomy Jones, a 5-foot 8-inch guard, scored 20 points, but 12 were in the fourth quarter. Dennis Hubanks had 17 points but only 7 in the first half.

If Lincoln had a weak spot in its game, it was free throws. Lincoln made only 10 of 29 (34.5%), including 4 airballs by Kenny Hawkins.

Making free throws has been a problem for Lincoln all season, Loneski said. But that has never caused much of a problem.

“We’ve always been able to get one of those streaks going,” he said.