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I never heard anything impressive on his site at all....read more...

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I work at the HSUS, and I’ve also worked at several animal shelters. Shelters do great work – ad...read more...

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DANVILLE – A five-year, 13-game losing streak came to an end Wednesday in the semifinal round of the 45th District Tournament as the host Danville Admirals knocked off defending champion Lincoln County 49-41.

The defeat knocked Lincoln (16-10), the champion of the district for the past two seasons, out of the regional tournament for the first time since 2005. It was in that year that Danville claimed its last win over Lincoln, eventually moving on to claim the district title with a win over Boyle County.

“Our biggest concern coming in was, if we don’t shoot well, are we going to be able to defend well enough and rebound well enough to win? And the answer to that is obviously, ‘No!’” said Lincoln coach Jeff Jackson.

Lincoln shot just 27 percent for the game, going 15-for-55 from the field, 9-for-32 from 3-point range. The Patriots didn’t get any opportunity to boost their points at the foul line, going just 2-for-4 overall.

“We took 32 3’s tonight, we never got in any kind of rhythm and were hesitant to shoot the ball, and that leads to the really huge concern that we had as a staff – the inexperience of our team going into the first game of the district tournament,” said Jackson.

Zack Hill, Colby Long and Matt Cooper, who scored 28 points, 20 points and 18 points in Lincoln’s regular-season closer at Casey on Friday, were limited to a combined 24 in the first-round district tournament game, with Cooper the only Patriot in double figures with 10 points. Hill was held to eight points and Long had six.

“Colby is the only one that’s played (district) before. Zack was on the floor a couple minutes and Trenton (Edgington), a couple minutes, and they’re thrust out there tonight as the people that have to get things done,” Jackson said. “My biggest concern was would our inexperience show and I thought it did.”

Danville (12-14), which lost to Lincoln twice in the regular season by three points and seven points, didn’t give the Patriots many chances for second shots Wednesday, grabbing 24 defensive rebounds in a 34-26 win on the glass.

Another key factor in Lincoln’s demise was the absence of Hill for much of the game. Hill picked up three fouls in the first half and finished with just eight points and four rebounds.

“Zack didn’t get to play a whole lot in the first half, and we’re not the same basketball team when he’s not on the floor,” said Jackson. “He’s our energy guy. He’s averaging 18 points a game. We can go in-and-out to him, he passes the ball well and kicks it back out and gets us in a little bit better rhythm. He just provides a lot of energy for us that we did not have tonight.”

Lincoln led for most of the first quarter, with four 3-point bombs nailed by Trenton Edgington, Ronnie Sharp and Cooper (2) to give the Patriots a 12-10 edge with 1:52 left in the first.

Danville, which shot 40 percent overall (18-for-45), claimed the lead before the close of the first, with Jacody Taylor and Tevin Raines capping off a 6-for-9 shooting effort with back-to-back goals. Taylor, who led the Admirals with 17 points, stepped behind the arc to deliver the closing shot to make it 15-12.

There were six lead changes in the first half, with the final lead change coming with just 46.8 seconds to play in the first half. Demarcus Walton hit inside to tie the game before Taylor went coast-to-coast off a steal to put the Admirals up 23-21 at the half.

Danville put some distance between the two teams to start the second half, opening the third quarter on a 10-3 run. Taylor and Colin Turner scored four points apiece in the run to extend Danville’s lead to 33-24 with 3:25 on the clock.

The Admirals posted their biggest lead of the game, 12 points, at the end of the third. Duran Elmore, who chipped in for 16 points in the win, converted on a three-point play and Taylor followed with a triple to make it 39-27.

Ronnie Sharp, who finished with nine points for the Patriots, drained a 3-pointer with 3:17 to go in the game to get Lincoln within 44-37, but the Pats got no closer as Danville moved on for the win.

“We knew it was going to be a battle,” said Jackson. “We’ve had two games with them that were very, very close and we knew this one would be a battle also.”

“You’ve got to give Danville credit,” he said. “I thought they played really, really well. They’ve got a good basketball team with a lot of experience. They played very loose and their experience showed. And, as the game went on, I thought our lack of showed.”

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