Mattingly pours in 22 points in Pats’ 59-37 win at Lafayette
Published 12:59 pm Thursday, December 5, 2019
Photos by Nancy Leedy FANS IN THE Lafayette student section try to distract Lincoln County’s Baylor Mattingly as he steps to the right corner for a 3-point shot. The junior guard bombed in six 3-pointers in the Patriots’ 59-37 win and posted a game-high 22 points.
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
LEXINGTON — For the last four seasons, the Lincoln County boys basketball team has opened with Lafayette. And in each start, Lafayette came away with the win.
That would not be the case in Tuesday night’s season-opener at Lafayette.
The Patriots opened the game on a 10-3 run and never looked back, leading by as many as 29 points before claiming a 59-37 victory.
“It’s a good win for our kids. A good start to the season,” Lincoln coach Jeff Jackson said. “I’m real proud of our kids for the effort they gave. Our defensive effort was really good. We shared the ball well.”
Junior guard Baylor Mattingly paced Lincoln in the win, scoring a game-high 22 points on 7-for-15 shooting. Of his 22 points, Mattingly rang up 18 from 3-point range.
“Baylor got hot and our kids were looking for him,” said Jackson. “He shot the ball really, really well tonight. The great thing about our team is, if someone’s got a hot hand, our team is going to try to feed him. We have a very unselfish group of kids.”
Mattingly knocked down three of his 3s in the opening frame, including two in the 10-3 run. Bryston Alcorn opened the game with a layup, then, after a free throw toss by Lafayette’s Ray Surratt, Mattingly stepped to the left corner to launch his first triple. Kobe Blake hit the Generals’ first basket with 6:14 on the clock only to have Lincoln’s senior center Riley Bodner answer with a layup off a Lafayette turnover and Mattingly bombing in his second 3 for a 10-3 lead with 4:37 left in the first quarter.
Lafayette responded with back-to-back buckets to challenge the Lincoln lead. Surratt scored a bucket in the paint and Campbell DeYoung nailed a 3-pointer to get the Generals within 10-8 with 2:48 left in the first.
They would get no closer.
Mattingly rolled off eight unanswered points over the next three minutes to give the Patriots their first double-digit lead. He closed the first quarter with a 3-pointer and two free throws to put Lincoln up 15-8, then opened the second quarter with another 3 for an 18-8 margin.
The Patriots led by as many as 12 points in the second quarter, with Elijah Frye driving in for a layup with 4:32 left in the first half for a 24-12 lead. The Generals got within eight points four different times in the period. Surratt, Lafayette’s towering 7-0 senior center, hit three of the four buckets, including scoring the final bucket of the half to make it 28-20 at the break.
Surratt, who led the Generals’ scoring with 12 points on 5-for-8 shooting and had six blocked shots, got only three points in the second half.
“He’s a nice player,” Jackson said of Surratt. “He plays really hard. Riley battled with him in there and held his own with him. He’s just a big kid.”
Lincoln quickly distanced itself from Lafayette in the third quarter, exploding on a 12-0 opening run. Bodner, who finished with 10 points on 5-for-8 shooting, ignited the run with a shot inside. Mattingly followed with a 3-pointer, Alcorn drove in for a layup, Jaxon Smith sank a free throw, Bodner tallied again then Smith scored on a putback for a 40-20 lead.
The Patriots took a 47-25 lead into the fourth quarter and led by as many as 29 points in the final frame. Tramane Alcorn drove inside with 2:25 to play to give Lincoln its largest lead of the game, 59-30.
The varsity win was the third Lincoln victory of the night against Lafayette, with the Patriots also posting freshman and junior varsity wins as well.
“Any time you can come to Lexington and get three wins, it’s a good night,” said Jackson. “I thought our kids played hard, all three groups and did a lot of good things. It was good to have everybody healthy. Riley has come back (broken toe) and is practicing and is starting to do better.”
“I’m real proud of our kids tonight. Now, we’ve got to go back to work and try to continue to improve.”
Lincoln shot 46 percent from the field in the win, connecting on 25 of 54 shot attempts, 6 of 18 from 3-point range. The Patriots were 3-for-3 at the foul line. Lafayette finished at 35 percent shooting, going 15-for-43 from the field, 3-for-20 from 3. The Generals were 4-for-9 at the line.
Lafayette edged Lincoln on the glass 29-28, led by Surratt and DeYoung with five boards each. The Patriots were led by Bryston Alcorn with a game-high 10 boards.
Lincoln had 12 steals and 11 turnovers. Bodner, Frye and Smith each had three steals and Alcorn had two. Lafayette had five steals and 22 turnovers.
*****
At Lafayette
Lincoln 15 8 13 19 – 59
Lafayette 8 12 5 12 – 37
LINCOLN (1-0) – Bryston Alcorn 6, Tramane Alcorn 4, Elijah Frye 8, Jaxon Smith 9, Baylor Mattingly 22, Riley Bodner 10.
LAFAYETTE (0-1) – Kobe Blake 5, Will Stanfield 2, Oumar Toure 5, Jayd Huynh 2, Musampa Bandumuna 2, Nick Napier 3, Campbell DeYoung 4, Abe Nelson 2, Ray Surratt 12.
