SAN FRANCISCO — The Lincoln Mustangs needed a spark after seeing their early 23-point lead cut all the way to nine, and James Walsh delivered it in a major way.
One of just three seniors on Lincoln’s roster, the 6-foot-5 forward came up with a steal, raced the entire length of the court and threw down a one-handed hammer to restore momentum for the visitors with a minute left in the third quarter, reinvigorating the Mustangs and paving the way to a 63-38 win over the Washington Eagles.
Between the first and fourth quarters, Lincoln (11-3, 2-0 AAA) outscored the hosts 43-10, but stagnant play in the middle two quarters let the Eagles close the gap all the way to nine before Walsh’s highlight-reel play made it 42-31. The Mustangs hardly looked back from there, returning to the fast-paced form they shad shown in the first quarter. Darrin Lum hit back-to-back threes to stretch the lead to 17 with five minutes left, and he’d drain another a minute later to make it 54-35.
“He was kind of upset with himself for missing a couple in the first half. He wants to be perfect, but I told him they would come and he hit the big ones to pull us away,” head coach Carl Jacobs said. “Against the zone, we knew Darrin could get a few.”
That zone helped Washington (5-11, 1-1) get back in the game after trailing 23-4 through a quarter against an inspired Lincoln team motivated to avoid another close call like Tuesday’s 68-64 win over Galileo and inspired by the return of sophomore guard Jordan Aquino, who came off the bench three minutes in, marking his first appearance since dislocating his shoulder and suffering a concussion in a scary fall on Dec. 26.
“Having your leader suited up really helps,” Jacobs commented.
Completing the trio of the Aquino brothers, along with freshmen Jeremyah and Justin, also allowed the Mustangs to further utilize their depth, a strength of the team that’s often overlooked with the three brothers racing past defenses and knocking down NBA-range 3-pointers.
Jacobs explained, “We have enough guys that they can get out there and give us three hard minutes instead of eight mediocre minutes.”
It was Justin who provided the early spark, scoring nine in the first quarter, including seven in a stretch where Washington turned it over on four straight possessions, with Kevin Xu picking up two of the steals. Jordan scored seven of his 11 in the second, though the Eagles’ switch to zone defense helped them slow the game down and end the half on a 7-0 run to go into the break trailing 35-17.
“We settled down and slowed them up a bit,” Washington head coach Jolinko Lassiter said.
The Eagles then got to the line for 15 free throw attempts in the third, getting seven of Jake Tang’s nine points in the quarter as they got the lead down to nine before Walsh’s dunk. That play seemed to snap the Mustangs out of their funk, as they’d blitz Washington until emptying the benches with 2:20 left.
Justin led all scorers with 16 while Walsh matched Jordan with 11 and pulled down a game-high nine rebounds, with eight on the offensive glass. Lum scored nine, all on fourth quarter threes, while Tang had eight rebounds and was matched with nine points by teammate Caelan Wallace.
Lincoln returns to action on Monday at 5:30 p.m. with a home game against Lowell (12-3, 2-0) while Washington will travel to Mission (6-9, 2-0).
