BOYS BASKETBALL: Smith, Love Power Southwest Past Northeast

LINCOLN–(KFOR Feb. 3)–Rylan Smith and Chuck Love became the one-two punch Lincoln Southwest’s boys basketball team needed after a slow start against Lincoln Northeast on Friday night.

The Silver Hawks got a second quarter boost from Smith’s shooting and pulled away in the second half to earn a 71-59 victory over the Rockets in a game heard on KFOR.

Southwest (10-7) found themselves down after 24-10 heading into the second quarter and trailed 28-13 before they mounted a 16-0 run to end the first half and led 29-28 at halftime.  During that second quarter run, Smith scored 15 of his 24 points including three, three-pointers and junior guard Karter Chamberlain added a three-pointer.

The Silver Hawks briefly trailed early in the third quarter before rallying back to take a 39-32 lead with 5:32 remaining off a dunk by Lukas Helms.  Love scored 14 of his 20 points in the second half, including eight points in the third quarter.

Northeast (10-8) trailed by as much 14 points in the fourth quarter, but cut the deficit down to as much as four but Southwest managed to connect on free throws down the stretch from Smith, Helms and Chamberlain to seal the win.

The Rockets took an 18-9 first quarter lead on a 10-0 spurt following a three-pointer from 6-7 senior Porter Bazil with 3:06 left.  Bazil finished with 24 points for Northeast.  That run was part of a 16-1 ending to the first quarter, capped by Christian Winn’s three-pointer with 26.5 seconds left that put the Rockets ahead by 14 points.  Winn fouled out with 13 points in the Northeast loss.

Click the links below to hear the podcast of the game!

Lincoln Southwest at Lincoln Northeast boys basketball 1st Half
Lincoln Southwest at Lincoln Northeast boys basketball 2nd Half