Bolingbrook prefers to push tempo as much as possible.

And while the Raiders did get some opportunities to get out and run a little bit in Monday’s MLK The Dream Classic at Homewood-Flossmoor against Lincoln Park, the opportunities seemed far and few between.

A physically played game, particularly in the second half, led to Bolingbrook having to pick and choose its spots and eventually allowed them to fend off the Lions for a 66-61 win.

Bolingbrook (13-5) has now won five out of its last six games, recovering nicely from an uncharacterstic three-game losing streak around the turn of the calendar to 2026.

“They are a good team and they’ve played some of the toughest teams in the state down to the wire just like they did us today,” Bolingbrook coach Rob Brost said. “One of the signs of a good team is that they can figure out a way to win when they don’t play well, but also take advantage of the opportunity when the game is going on.

“We did one of those things, but we didn’t do the other.”

Lincoln Park (13-7) seemed to be on its way to getting run off the floor in the first half as Bolingbrook built a 15-point lead late in the second quarter, but the Lions didn’t pack it in at the break.

Lincoln Park scored the final four points of the first half and then started the second half with an 8-2 run that allowed it to close within 35-31.

Bolingbrook surged again to re-establish control, but Lincoln Park’s aggressive style and the heavy number of fouls called in the second half never allowed the Raiders to fully catch their groove.

A TJ Williams 3-pointer nearly rebuilt Bolingbrook’s lead to double digits at 47-38, but Lincoln Park kept maintaining close enough contact to keep it interesting.

Williams, who led Bolingbrook with 21 points and scored his 1,000th career point in the process, felt he and his teammates ability to keep their composure was critical.

“It was just keeping our composure, we knew it was going to be a rough and physical game coming in,” Williams said. “We just had to keep our guys together, not getting into all of the nonsense of the talking and just playing the right way.”

Lincoln Park got to within two points twice in the fourth quarter, the latest coming at the 1:40 mark when the Lions closed to within 62-60, but Isaiah Rogers hit a free throw and Brady Pettigrew (15 points) knocked down a pair of free throws to put Bolingbrook in control for good.

It was another step in a brutal schedule for Bolingbrook, which enters another daunting week with a rapidly improving Oswego team on Friday and a showdown with one of the state’s top players in Neuqua Valley’s Cole Kelly on Saturday at the When Sides Collide Shootout at Benet.

“This is the way we want it and this is the way we scheduled it,” Brost said. “And you can blame the schedule on yours truly right here. So it doesn’t get any easier and we’ll keep taking them as they come.”