BASKETBALL: Gossett's big night not enough for Lincoln Land
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Du Quoin's Matt Gossett had a successful return to southern Illinois with 24 points, but his Lincoln Land Loggers fell to Rend Lake College 92-74 last night in Ina behind a game-high 26 points from the Warriors' Noah Stewart.
A corner jumper from E.J. Brodie with 14:49 left in the opening half put RLC on top 14-6, but after regrouping a timeout, the Loggers closed the gap to 15-11 after a fast-break lay-up by Austin Perry with an assist to Drew Dudek (Pinckneyville, IL).
Stewart and Chris Sanders began to heat up for the Warriors, as Sanders hit a pair of jumpers and Stewart had five points during a 14-0 Rend Lake run that was capped off with a three from Dustin Winter (Pinckneyville, IL).
Gossett broke the run with 7:10 to go in the half and started a 6-0 spurt for the Loggers while scoring 9 of his 10 first-half points after RLC made their big push. The Warriors were able to maintain a sizeable advantage, however, and led 41-24 at the break.
The first three minutes of the second half belonged to Gossett, who spun in the post for two on the Loggers' first possession and added a pair of triples during a 12-0 run for Lincoln Land that cut RLC's lead to 41-36 with 16:40 to play.
Jordan Michels's three with 14:23 to go brought LLCC to within four at 45-41, but the Warriors responded again, this time with a 6-0 run.
Winter would connect from downtown three times in the second half as Rend Lake extended their lead, not allowing Lincoln Land to get closer than eight down in the final thirteen minutes.
All six Warriors who scored finished in double figures. Malik Fair finished with 18 points and Winter, Brodie, Sanders and James Pope each had a dozen. Kyle Martin and Cody Sims (Pinckneyville, IL) also saw action for RLC.
For the Loggers, Ben Jones joined Gossett in double figures with 15 points, Michels added 9, Perry 8 and Aaron Davis and Mason Alwan had 7.
Rend Lake hosts Southeastern Illinois on Saturday in their next contest (3:00 p.m.) while the Loggers take on Lincoln College at Lincoln Land, also Saturday at 3:00 p.m.
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