On Thursday, the Lincoln Lions faced the Exeter-West Greenwich Scarlet Knights in a battle between two of the state's top teams. Lincoln secured a 51-47 W over Exeter-West Greenwich. The victory was just what Lincoln needed coming off of a 71-47 defeat in their prior matchup.
Lincoln had a senior duo take command as Lauren Cipriano scored 33 points and Tayla Valentin dropped a double-double on 12 points and 24 rebounds. That makes it 13 consecutive games in which Cipriano has scored at least a third of Lincoln's points. Khady Ndoye was another key contributor, scoring two points along with nine rebounds.
Several Scarlet Knights players turned in solid performances despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Ella Johnson, who scored 14 points along with four steals. Johnson has been hot recently, having posted two or more steals the last seven times she's played. Another player making a difference was Kendall Husband, who scored 15 points.
Even though they lost, Exeter-West Greenwich were working as a unit and finished the game with 12 assists. This was only their first loss (out of four games) when they've passed the ball that well.
Lincoln has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four contests, which provided a nice bump to their 12-8 record this season. As for Exeter-West Greenwich, their loss dropped their record down to 13-5.
Lincoln and Toll Gate will face off at 6:30 p.m. on February 9th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. The matchup should be an exciting one, as these teams are closely ranked in Rhode Island (Toll Gate is ranked 15th, while Lincoln is ranked 16th). As for Exeter-West Greenwich, they will be playing in front of their home fans against Middletown at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. Exeter-West Greenwich is facing Middletown at the right time seeing as Middletown is stuck on a 17-game losing streak.
