When the Northeastern Knights basketball team traveled to Cambridge City on Thursday, Jan. 30, for a game with the Lincoln Golden Eagles, a share of the conference lead was on the line. Entering the contest, the two teams were tied with Winchester at the top of the Tri-Eastern Conference standings as the only teams without a loss in league play.
The two teams met on a neutral floor three weeks prior during the Wayne County tournament, with the Knights taking a 77-48 win, but during that meeting, Lincoln senior Aidan Munchel, the leading scorer and rebounder for Lincoln, did not play because of illness.
The game Thursday was not played on a neutral court and Munchel was back in the lineup to turn in a strong performance, but the Knights broke open a close game in the third quarter and went on to take a 71-48 win.
The teams played a back-and-forth first quarter. Lincoln led 2-0 and 5-3, and the game was tied at 14-14 before the Knights took a 20-16 lead into the second quarter. The Knights never surrendered their lead in the second quarter, but they could not pull away. Carson Hawk scored for the Eagles with 1:38 remaining in the first half to cut the Lincoln deficit to 29-26 before a basket from Noah Payne gave the Knights a 31-26 halftime lead.
The third quarter started like the first half ended. Noah Patterson and Noah Payne traded 3-pointers before Evan Stuckey hit a corner 3-pointer to make the score 33-31 at the 5:43 mark. Defensive pressure and the game’s pace started taking a toll on the Eagles. The Knights closed the period on a 19-7 run to build a 54-38 lead at the end of the third quarter, with Payne scoring 15 points in the period.
The Knights slowed their attack and used their inside game to add to their lead in the fourth quarter, eventually pulling away to a 71-48 win.
Payne ended his night with a game and team high of 29 points, Tre Vanlandingham scored 17 points, and Sam White scored 10 points and collected 10 rebounds. Munchel and Stuckey shared scoring honors for Lincoln with 13 points each, and Dustin Lunsford added 10 points.
Northeastern head coach Brent Ross said the strategy was to physically wear Lincoln down.
“We try to get into their legs,” Ross said. “In the third and fourth quarter we were able to do that. We kept the game at our pace. We played with a lot of kids to stay as fresh as possible. I thought Lincoln played well. I think they are definitely a contender in their sectional.”
Lincoln head coach Rodney Klein said the Knights are good. “Northeastern is a state-ranked team for a reason,” Klein said. “They have a lot of weapons, and they just wore us down in the second half. I thought we did a good job of taking care of the ball in the first half and getting good shots. In the third quarter, we went from attacking with passes to attacking with the dribble, and we got into some traps and they started scoring in transition. We are getting better, and our goal is to prepare for our sectional. Games like this will help us do that. I was pleased with our effort tonight. We will build on that.”
Northeastern (17-1, 4-0 TEC) 20 11 23 17 71
Payne 29, Kaleb Moore 5, Vanlandingham 17, Landon Scarrette 9, Trent Deloney 0, Marshall Phillips 0, Matthew Truitt 0, Brody Ross 1, White 10, Nic Markward 0, Cooper Cline 0, Luke Wile 0 — Total 71
Lincoln (9-4, 3-1 TEC) 16 10 12 10 48
Patterson 8, Lunsford 10, Stuckey 13, Oliver Webb 0, Munchel 13, Hawk 4, Clayton Vickers 0, Elijah French 0, Ben Bates 0, Braxton Dick 0, Caden Ripberger 0, Dustin Irwin — Total 48
JV results: Northeastern 43 (Brody Ross 10), Lincoln 27 (Trevor Zapfe)
A version of this article will appear in the February 5 2025 print edition of the Western Wayne News.