Daniel Ralston led four players in double figures with 16 points, making three of five 3-pointers for Lincoln (3-1), which was 5-for-10 from long range. Ryan Young had 14 points, Chase Overstreet had 12 and Braxton Miller had 10. It was a balance Jackson liked.
"We have seven or eight kids that, on any given night, can lead us in scoring," Jackson said. "That's one thing that makes us hopefully hard to defend and hard to prepare for, because we've got some kids that can shoot it, and some kids that can finish around the basket."
And Jackson thought it was the ability of the Patriots to get into the lane so often that finally wore East Jessamine (1-5) down.
"At times, there were three or four guys who touched the ball in transition. And when you do that, it's fun to watch," Jackson said. "And I want us to be fun to watch. When we're sharing the ball we're fun to watch. And when we share the ball, we have a chance to be successful."
Strong passing night
Of Lincoln's 30 buckets, 16 came off assists, led by Young with five and Trent Calhoun with three.
Lincoln never trailed, but twice had double-digit leads whittled down to two points and another cut to five before finally putting the game away in the third quarter.
Up 36-34 with 3:25 left in the third, the Patriots went on a 10-0 run, capped by Ralston's third 3-pointer of the night, to lead 46-36.
Braxton Miller's fastbreak dunk put Lincoln up 51-37 after the third quarter, and the lead swelled to as many as 23 points late in the game.
"I think Trent and Braxton are getting a little explosion in their legs, a little quickness," Jackson said of the Patriots' football stars. "It's going to take a while to get them going."
Jackson was also pleased to see his team bounce back from a 71-40 loss to 10th Region power Mason County last Friday.
"We had a gut check form the other night, where we played poorly. Tonight, I thought we played hard," he said.
"Is there room for improvement? Yes, there is, but for the most part we shared the basketball. We needed to win tonight."
And early, it looked like that win was going to come easy.
Overstreet's six first-quarter points helped Lincoln jump out to a 17-6 lead after the first quarter. The Patriots still led 24-15 on Young's runner in the lane with 3:40 left in the half before East Jessamine's Justin Sanders tried to keep his team in the game.
Sanders, who finished with game highs of 27 points and 10 rebounds, scored seven straight points, the last four off Lincoln turnovers, cutting Lincoln's led to 24-22 with 1:44 left in the half and forcing Jackson to call timeout.
"I told them just calm down. We got a little out of sync in their press-breaker," Jackson said. "I just told them to calm down and move the ball a little bit better, make good decisions."
Whatever he said worked, as Lincoln scored the last 10 points of half, capped by Ralston's runner with 12 seconds left that gave Lincoln a 34-22 edge at the half.
The Jaguars were just 8-for-25 shooting in the first half (32 percent) and finished the night shooting 38 percent (21-of-55) from the floor. East Jessamine outrebounded Lincoln 36-24, including 16 offensive boards.
EAST JESSAMINE (1-5) - Ryan Hager 2, Daniel Gainey 1, Tommy Beach 7, Justin Sanders 27, Kris Washington 2, Sam Humphrey 2, Stephen Smith 3, Matt Whitley 11.
E. Jessamine6223755Lincoln17345175
