Photos by Peter Coan

Cheers filled the Cardinal Coliseum on March 1 as the varsity boys’ basketball team (14-11) sealed a state playoff berth with a 73-50 win over Glencoe (5-19). The Cards went into halftime only leading 24-16 but started to pull away in the third quarter.

“Our energy picked up,” head coach Sean Christensen said. “We created some turnovers with some full-court defense and that got us easy baskets.”

The team finished with four players in double figures for scoring, including sophomore Jackson Pyle, whose 11 points all came in the fourth quarter.

“It was hard second-half play and lots of defensive plays that got us the momentum,” Pyle said.

Senior Tim Graham scored a team-high 14 points. Freshman Nolan Bertain scored 13 points and freshman Jonah Pemberton finished with 10 points.

Lincoln will now host Lake Oswego (12-11) on Wednesday in the first round of the state playoffs. The 19th-ranked Lakers appear to be a tougher match up for the Cards then last-ranked Glencoe.

Senior Charlie Burns, who scored seven points in the final two minutes, believes that beating Lake Oswego will take the right combination of intensity and execution. “We’ve got to play together, we’ve got to play hard, and we’ve got to make shots,” he said.

The Lakers finished third in the Three Rivers League behind junior point guard Jazz Johnson.

“He doesn’t turn the ball over, he makes unbelievable passes, and he’s got a great jump shot,” senior Quentin Lake said. “He’s one of the best players in the state.”

Johnson is coming off a 22-point performance against Lakeridge in a 63-55 victory for the Lakers.

“Everything we did tonight we have to be better at,” Christensen said. “We have to make sure we know how to defend him.

A win would place the Cards in a second-round game on March 8.

“The playoffs are a different thing than the regular season,” Christensen said, “so we have to be better than we were even today.”