Lincoln High’s boys basketball team didn’t feel like leaving Reno early on Sunday.

The Zebras, playing in the University of Nevada at Reno Team Camp from Friday through Sunday, were seeded eighth among 10 teams (large school bracket) entering Sunday’s single elimination action.

Lincoln went 2-3 over the first two days of the camp in pool play before hitting the court on Sunday morning against top-seeded Colfax.

“I told them, we can go home at 11 a.m. or go home at 4 p.m. and they said 4 p.m. And I said, ‘good, that is the right answer,’” Lincoln coach Ben Palafox said. “They really wanted to play.”

Lincoln beat Colfax by a point on Sunday before topping Kennedy of Fremont by six and Oakmont by one to reach the finals against Stagg of Stockton.

The Zebras won the championship game by 22 points. Book is not kept during the summer so official scores and stats were not available.

“We took 11 players up there for the camp and the seniors stepped up,” Palafox said. “Jake (Courage) and Keenan (Hale) and Andrew (Inocelda) and Dusty Foster and Josh Anderson and Steven Bobyk. That group of six or seven with varsity experience really wanted to play.

“It was a great experience. They got to play in Lawler Pavilion and it seats over 17,000. Great dorm rooms and they ate great. For two and a half days the kids really had a great time there.”

The Zebras closed out the William Jessup University summer league on June 25.

This league lasted four weeks with games being played each Tuesday and Thursday. Lincoln finished the league with a record of 5-3. The other teams participating were Center, Casa Roble, Granite Bay, Yuba City, Rocklin, Bear River and Roseville.

Lincoln played Center twice last week, losing by over 15 points both times. Center was top-ranked and Lincoln was seeded No. 2 before the final game.

Palafox was pleased with Lincoln’s performance in the league.

“Most important for us was to get a look at all 16 or 17 players that continually show up,” Palafox said. “We had practices prior to games for an hour and a half and the effort and dedication to get things done was shown by them. We were able to look at those players in game situations and make evaluations. We’ll give them a nice report card.

“We’ll have a nice core group (next year) and then some players that will be role players behind them and we’ll have positions filled nicely at guard and in the post. We’ll have a group of nine or 10 players getting some (prominent) minutes. And we’re getting close to that point.”