Looks like Lance Stephenson and the Lincoln Railsplitters won’t get to play on ESPNU on Tuesday.
Lincoln lost to Marietta (Ga.) Wheeler, 101-84, Saturday night in the quarterfinals of the City of Palms Classic in Fort Myers, Fla. Dylan Butler has a great blog about it at fiveborosports.com.
ESPNU will telecast the first-and third-place games on Tuesday. Lincoln will play Philly Roman Catholic for fifth place on Monday at 3:30.
Phil Taylor of Brooklyn paced Wheeler with 26 points, Wake Forest-bound Ari Stewart added 25 and Tahj Tate tallied 24. Read Dylan’s feature on Taylor here.
The 6-foot-5 Stephenson paced Lincoln with 26 points on 9-of-18 shooting one night after pouring in 37 in a victory over Memphis (Tenn.) Briarcrest that was witnessed by Kansas assistants Danny Manning and Kurtis Townsend. Lance was 1-of-6 from 3 and 7-of-8 from the stripe. He added 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 turnover.
Darwin “Buddha” Ellis added 16 points and Anthony Allen 14.
You have to give Lincoln coach Dwayne “Tiny” Morton credit for playing a tough schedule. It’s not even Christmas and the Railsplitters already have two losses to Top 25 teams. Lincoln still has dates with Top 5 Jersey powerhouses St. Patrick and St. Benedict’s in 2009, and will play Paterson Catholic as well.
**Read my feature on Lance Stephenson here.
**In the last quarterfinal of the day, Mater Dei (Calif.), the No. 1 team in the nation, outlasted Philly Roman Catholic, 72-70.
Rakeem Brookins paced Roman Catholic with 29 points on 10-of-21 shooting, and Villanova-bound guard Maalik Wayns added 16 points on 5-for-22 shooting and 10 assists. He was 0-for-7 from 3.
The game was tied at 70 before Roman Catholic committed a foul on 6-5 UCLA-bound point guard Tyler Lamb, who hit two free throws with 5.5 seconds left.
