In a battle of two of the top 5 ranked teams in the latest NJCAA D-II Poll, it was all Parkland on Saturday as they beat the visiting Lynx 70-49 in the M-WAC opener for both squads. The Cobras built a 10 point halftime lead and pulled away over the final ten minutes to seal the victory.
The Cobras pulled out to leads of 17-11 and 21-14 in the opening half before the Lynx rallied to cut the margin to just one at 23-22 with 5:02 remaining before half.
Jordache Mavunga would drain a three to start a 9-0 Cobra run to push the lead to 10 and PC eventually would take a 34-24 lead into intermission. After the break, PC would slowly build their lead to 15 at 50-35 with 8:01 to go. The Lynx would make a mini run to get their deficit down to just ten at 53-43 with 5:15 left on the clock, but PC would answer with a 10-0 run to put the game away.
Quin Nottingham hit a runner in the lane,
Isaiah Curry and
Marcus Latham each hit a pair of free throws,
Dirk Jordan scored a bucket on a put back of his own missed shot, and Latham delivered the dagger with a long three to give the Cobras a 63-43 lead with just 2:34 left.
The Cobras won the game at the free throw line and on the glass. Parkland made 24-31 shots from the charity stripe (77%) while Lincoln made just 8 of 12 for the game. Parkland dominated the glass 43-25 including 13 offensive rebounds. Neither team shot well on the afternoon as PC made just 38% of their shots to 34% for Lincoln. PC was led once again by
Marcus Latham who had a game high 19 points and 7 rebounds. Fourteen of those points came in the second half as he went 9-10 at the line.
Quin Nottingham came off the bench to add 16 points and had 3 assists.
Isaiah Curry also finished in double figures with 15 points and grabbed 7 boards.
Parkland improves to (15-2 1-0) with the win and will return to action on Wednesday night when travel to play Illinois Central in East Peoria. The Cougars (8-8 1-0) won their M-WAC opener 76-68 at Lincoln Land. Lincoln drops to (17-2 0-1) and will host Danville (16-3 1-0) on Wednesday night as well. DACC edged John Wood 66-64 earlier this afternoon.
