City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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Heading into Saturday’s District 12 Class 6A championship against Roman Catholic, Tyree Corbett felt he and his Abraham Lincoln teammates were being overlooked.

Roman had five straight district titles and was coming off a Philadelphia Catholic League championship and 12 straight wins. In contrast, the Rail Splitters didn’t have any championship trophies to claim and after winning the Public League’s ‘B’ Division, they lost in the quarterfinals of the Public League playoffs.

“Coming in here, people thought we were going to lose because they won the Catholic League championship,” Corbett said. “We just wanted to show that don’t mean nothing. We’re not underdogs, we’re not nothing. We’re going to come out aggressive and strong regardless. No matter who we play against.”

There was more than just personal pride or a championship on the line though. The Rail Splitters also realized that playing the Catholic League champs meant they were representing the Public League.

After the other Public League schools had failed to get by their PCL foes in other classifications’ District 12 matchups, the Rail Splitters felt pressure to pick up a marquee win for the league. Lincoln did just that, beating Roman 86-76 for the first district title in school history.

“When they won that Catholic League championship, that just heightened this game for us,” Rail Splitters coach Al Brown said. “It meant a lot to come out here with a win for the Public League. It’s Lincoln high school, but we’re also playing for the whole Public League since that’s the Catholic League champ.”

The two teams met up in last year’ District 12 final with Roman coming out on top 68-59. Revenge was on the minds of the Lincoln players, especially five in particular who played significant roles for last year’s squad.

Senior guard Khalif Meares, senior forward Jahi Randal, senior guard Shakeir Morrison, senior guard Sanhei Day and junior guard Emeul Charleston all played large parts in the upset victory.

Charleston had 10 points, including a three off an assist from Meares to put the Rail Splitters up eight with four minutes left. Morrison scored eight points and grabbed six rebounds, including an offensive board with less than two and a half minutes left that helped Lincoln go up by six.

Randal, who finished with 15 points, forced a jump ball with 1:31 left to give the Rail Splitters back possession up by three. Day knocked down five of six free throws in the second half, including two with 1:01 left to make it a 79-74 game.

Meares, the ‘B’ Division Player of the Year, finished with 18 points, which tied with Corbett for the team high. He also put the finishing touches on the win with a breakaway slam to close out the game.

“Last year we lost, so I just wanted to make a statement that there’s a reason we came here,” Meares said. “We had one thing to do, and we got it done.”

“It was payback,” Randal said of the dunk.

The game was close throughout the first half with Lincoln going into halftime with a 45-44 lead, but Roman came out of the break hot, scoring seven straight points and going up by six two minutes into the second half after a three from senior Allen Betrand. Lincoln held off the Roman spurt and posted one of its own to go into the fourth up by three.

Despite its best efforts, Roman could not get crack the lead in the fourth. Hakim Hart, who finished with 21 points, drilled a three with 7:06 left to make it a one point game, but Randal responded with a bucket.

Seth Lundy, who finished with 20 points, drilled a three with 1:42 left, but then came a free throw by Morrison and the big jump ball by Randal. Lynn Greer III added 18 points and was a perfect 14-of-14 from the stripe.

Roman made a lot of shots, but Lincoln did enough defensively, especially in the second half, to pick up the historic win.

“We preached all week long, defense, defense, defense,” Brown said. “Roman Catholic, I’ll tip my hat off to them. They have a lot of guys who can create their own shot. They put about four or five guards on the floor at any given moment, so they all can get their own shot, they all can finish, they can shoot, so we told them to stay locked in, stay identifying shooters and talk on defense. That was our mantra all week.”

Brown said last year’s District 12 championship game was the first meaningful championship game the Rail Splitters played in since he took over as head coach in 2010.

They also advanced to states a season ago for the first time in school history and picked up the school’s first state playoff win as well. Having the team play in big games, and now starting to win some has been a special turnaround for Brown and his playes.

“Lincoln wasn’t even thought about before last year,” Randal said. “For us to be on the map like this this year, it’s really a big opportunity.”

“It means a lot to us, and these guys, they’ve forever stamped their names in the history books at Lincoln,” Brown added. “This group basically paved the way for every group that comes after them. It was a great win, great team win.”

Roman will take on Pennridge, the No. 6 seed out of District 1, in the first round of the PIAA Class 6A state tournament. Lincoln will face Upper Darby, the No. 8 seed out of District 1.

Last season, Roman lost to Perkiomen Valley in the first round, while Lincoln beat Conestogra before losing to Carlisle out of District 3.

Coming off their big win Saturday, the Rail Splitters feel like they can make even more noise this season.

“Right now we got a lot of momentum, and right now we just gotta keep the mindset to win,” Randal said. “That’s all we want to do is win. Whatever we need to do to win, we’re gonna do it.”