INA - The Rend Lake College Warriors basketball season was stopped by top-seeded Lincoln College today in the semifinal round of the Region XXIV Championships at RLC.

The Lynx dealt Rend Lake an 87-66 loss via shooting guard Darius Adams' game-high 28, center Chris Ware's 16 and Bryce Davis' 17.

"Five out of the eight seasons I've been here, the train has stopped at Lincoln," said RLC Assistant Coach Dave Jackson.

RLC sophomore Brian Gamber (Mt. Vernon) led his team with 15 while fellow sophomore Josh Davis (Evansville, Ind.) had a dozen and freshman point guard Reggie Reed scored 11.

"We came out and worked hard but Lincoln came out and played their butts off," Davis said. "I give them all the credit in the world. They wanted it. They played hard and executed. We didn't have an answer for them."

Down by 16 at the half, RLC couldn't quite get over the hump, trimming the deficit to around 8 or 9, but were consistently trying to come back from being down by a dozen or more.

"Every time we would get the score down, they would come back with a run," Davis added. "They played good."

"We had our chances," Gamber said. "We wanted to go to the national championships just as much as anyone. But it's like coach [Tim Wills] told us, only one team can win their last game of the year. When it's all said and done, only one team is going to feel good about themselves after they play that last game. Obviously it's disappointing and we would have liked for it to come later on down the line, but I hope our guys don't hang their heads because above .500 with our schedule is pretty good."

The Warriors end 2008-09 basketball with an overall record of 16-16 and 5-11 in the Great Rivers Athletic Conference.

Lincoln will host the winner of Illinois Central and Lewis and Clark in the championship game Tuesday night.

BOX SCORE

RLC vs Lincoln

RLC (66) Abraham 3,0-0,7 Reed 3,4-4,11 Badger 0,0-0,0 Gamber 5,4-4,15 Davis 5,2-2,12 Thurau 0,0-0,0 Trotter 3,0-1,7 Randolph 4,0-1,9 Carpenter 2,1-4,5

LC (87) Augusta 2,0-0,5 Farmer 5,1-3,12 Ware 8,0-0,16 Adams 12,2-3,28 Hines 1,0-0,2 Davis 8,1-3,17 Neitzel 3,1-1,7

Halftime score - RLC 30 LC 46; 3-point goals - RLC 5 (Abraham, Reed, Gamber, Trotter, Randolph) LC 4 (Augusta, Farmer, Adams 2); Team fouls - RLC 15 LC 15; Foul-outs - 0