Prep Basketball: Hot-shooting Lincoln County takes down Garrard 65-34

STANFORDÃ?¿— Lincoln County won its first three district games on the road, and the Patriots showed Tuesday night it wasn’t going to be any easier to beat them at home.
Lincoln shot 56 percent from the field in the first half, led by 27 points at halftime and rolled past Garrard County 65-34.
Trenton Edgington hit two 3-pointers and scored a game-high 15 points for the Patriots (11-8, 4-0 45th
District), who went 5-for-9 from 3-point range in the first quarter and led by 15 points.
“Coach (Jeff Jackson) told us in the locker room people were predicting Garrard to come out on top, and he just wanted us to defend our house and prove the point that we’re on top,” said guard Carl-Lewis Cummins, who scored 10 points.
After Lincoln faced an early 3-0 deficit, Cummins answered with two 3-point goals and the rout was on. An Edgington trey made it 10-3, then Edgington and Timmy Taylor hit 3-pointers as the Patriots led 18-3 after the first quarter.
Austin Sebastian hit the opening shot to give Garrard the lead less than a minute into the game. But the Golden Lions (7-11, 2-2) missed thier next 10 shots and turned the ball over seven times. By the time Josh Stull scored with 5 minutes, 32 seconds left in the first half, Lincoln led 24-5.
It was not the effort Garrard coach Brandon Cooper was wanting from his team.
“You come off a pretty good win (Friday against Danville), I guess you get a little bit relaxed, and we just came out flat,” Cooper said. “(We) didn’t execute the way we wanted to. (I) felt pretty comfortable about our 2-3 (zone), and I give it to (Lincoln), they shot the lights out of it. They got in the flow of the game and we couldn’t.”
Thee straight buckets from Luke Hill, two of them layups after Garrard turnovers, made it 24-3. Lincoln then closed out the half on a 11-2 run, including a four-point play by Jacob Conway that made it 31-6. Conway finished with 10 points.
Cummins’ layup with a minute left in the half gave Lincoln a 35-8 halftime lead.
The Patriots were 13 for 23 from the field in the first half, hitting six of their 13 3-pointers.
“We shot the ball well. We shoot it well sometimes when we share the ball and make the extra pass, we have a tendency to put the ball in the basket,”Ã?¿Jackson said. “And I thought our ball movement was really good in the first half. Not quite as good as good in the second half.”
Part of that had to do with the Patriots holding a big lead, but Jackson said his team can never relax.
“We’ve got to get it to where we don’t do that. We have to learn to put 32 minutes together,” he said.
Lincoln finished the game 19-for-42 (45 percent) from the floor, made nine of 21 3-pointers and went
18-for-23 at the line.
Hill, who scored 12 points, picked up his third foul 28 seconds into the second half, and Cooper was hoping his team could take advantage and trim away some of that lead going into the fourth quarter. But the Lions still trailed 46-20 going to the fourth quarter after Conway his a 3-pointer, then got fouled on a 3-pointer and made all three free throws.
“We were trying to go inside at that points. But it seems that for some reason, when we play Lincoln we let them dictate what we’re going to do,”Ã?¿Cooper said.
Garrard went 3-for-21 from the field in the first half and finished the game 11-for-46 (24 percent) from the field and 9-for-21 at the foul line.
“I thought we defended well tonight, especially in the first half. I thought Trenton did a really good job on Sebastian because he’s really good. Coming home was good. We haven’t been too much this year,”Ã?¿Jackson said.
“We played well (and) they didn’t have one of their better games, and sometimes those things happen. I credit our kids for the effort they had, the preparation was good, they were focused and came out and had a real good ballgame.”
Markell Hayes led Garrard with 10 points and six rebounds and Sebastian had nine points, Garrard outrebounded Lincoln 31-23, including 15-5 on the offensive boards.
“We gave up way too many offensive rebounds they beat us on the glass pretty good,”Ã?¿Jackson said. “Any team you have to block out and limit them to one shot, because if they get extra shots, something bad’s usually going to happen.”

Garrard County    3    8    20    34
Lincoln County    18    34    46    65
GARRARDÃ?¿(7-11) — Austin Sebastian 9, Clayton Ray 3, Josh Stull 4, Markell Hayes 10, Jesse Ray 2, Micah Miniard 1, Slade Crutchfield 3.
LINCOLNÃ?¿(11-8) — Trenton Edgington 15, Timmy Taylor 7, Carl-Lewis Cummins 10, Jacob Conway 10, Austin Grigsby 2, Micah Ward 3, Shade Jacobs 3, Luke Hill 12, Brett Deshon 3.