Twelve Bridges surges past Lincoln in Safari Showdown

There is a 124-year age gap between crosstown rivals Lincoln and Twelve Bridges and Tuesday night, the new kids in town reaffirmed their place atop the city. The Raging Rhinos pushed their winning streak in the rivalry to four, securing a 55-36 triumph over Lincoln in the Safari Showdown. The Rhinos were suffocating defensively and elevated by a second-half surge from forward Safi Abdela. Twelve Bridges set the tone on defense from the opening tip, smothering Lincoln's guard duo of Triton Cox and Mason Volzer. Twelve Bridges coach Robert Ash said he sent a steady rotation of fresh bodies to wear them down for four quarters and he was pleased with how the defense answered the bell. "Everybody knows those two make them go," Ash said of Lincoln's dynamic guard duo. "We tried to wear them down by just sending bodies at them. Defensively, we did a really, really good job." The offense didn't match the defensive sharpness early, however. Twelve Bridges missed a series of shots in the paint despite holding a significant size advantage, finishing just 39 percent of its opportunities inside. Each time the Rhinos pushed their lead to seven or eight, a turnover or missed layup opened the door for the Zebras to climb back in. Ash expressed his frustration with the poor finishing inside, saying he knows the first quarter in early season games will be sloppy but he still feels the Rhinos have work to be done if they want to make another deep playoff run. "We were missing bunnies, missing in transition," said Ash. "Anytime we had a chance to close the door, it felt like we were like, 'Here you go, Lincoln, come right back in.' I'm proud we won. I'm proud of our guys. I think it was a good atmosphere for us. We defended, but we are not where we want to be to achieve our goals." The Rhinos doubled a seven-point halftime lead by the end of the third quarter thanks largely to Abdela, who scored nine points in the period and began to impose his will on both ends. He finished with 20 points and nine rebounds. Volzer led the Zebras with 17 points. "When Safi and Micah (Boman) go, that's when we're pretty good," Ash said. "He was quiet in the first half, but once he settled in, he changed the game. If (Safi) plays a complete 32 minutes, he's good for 25 or 30, and that's where we're trying to get him." Lincoln coach Chris Ahrens said the Rhinos pulled away because of a change in the defensive pressure that began in the third quarter. "They put more pressure on us," he said. "We've got to learn to push through some of that adversity. A couple turnovers, a couple sets we couldn't get going, and we kind of abandoned them. We just have to stay the course." Ash credited the improved tempo control to his team settling down after emotions and nerves ran high in a rivalry game. He added Twelve Bridges moved into man-to-man coverage and extended pressure, forcing Lincoln's guards to work through contact and fatigue. "We wanted to make them run a little further, crash so they have to block you out, just wear them down," Ash said. "We planned to push the pace and not call timeouts unless we absolutely needed to." Still, Ash was far from satisfied with the overall execution. Both teams struggled with careless turnovers, and the Rhinos floated too many passes that allowed Lincoln to hang around early. Even with the imperfections, Twelve Bridges sits at 7-1, a half-court buzzer-beater away from unbeaten, but Ash said that record means little in the context of what's coming. "I don't think that you can let your foot off the gas in the FVL. It's a deep league," said Ash. "We have 13 seeds winning playoff games." Ahrens noted it has been a frustrating start to the season for the Zebras (1-6), but he believes Lincoln can turn things around. "It's a process," Ahrens said. "We've played a lot of teams punching above our weight class. I tell the guys, if you're not learning from these losses, then it's a failure. Otherwise, we keep plugging along and get a little better every day."