In a wild one, Lindenwold prevails over Overbrook

Lindenwold scored the first 13 points of the game and 27 of the final 38.

In between, the Lions were outscored by 26.

"I think we're looking at these kinds of games for a while," Lindenwold coach Harold Little said after the Lions survived some wild swings in momentum and emerged with an 54-51 victory over rival Overbrook yesterday in a Colonial Conference boys' basketball game.

Junior forward Carl Dean scored 17 points and senior guard A.J. Johnson added 14, including a clutch layup in the game's final minute, for Lindenwold (1-1).

Sophomore guard Dan Wilson scored 16 for Overbrook (1-1).

"You have to give them credit," Overbrook coach Chuck Marciano said of Lindenwold. "They didn't quit and they made some nice adjustments."

Little said his inexperienced team is likely to play without any consistency through the early part of the season, if not longer.

The veteran coach saw the same thing in Friday's season opener, a 62-53 loss to defending Colonial Conference champion Collingswood.

"Same thing last night," Little said of the game against Collingswood. "We have stretches where it looks like we know what we're doing, and stretches when we look like we're brain-dead out there."

Overbrook opened Friday night with a 59-43 victory over Haddon Township. But the Rams were flat at yesterday's noon tip-off, falling behind by 13-0.

Overbrook used its full-court zone press to create numerous turnovers in the second quarter, huckstering Lindenwold, 24-6, and taking a 31-20 lead into the locker room at halftime.

"We lost our focus," Johnson said of the second quarter. "We had to get back to playing defense the way we did in the first quarter."

Overbrook stretched its lead to 40-27 midway through the third quarter, as forwards Tyriek Bullock and Rashawn Jarido controlled the backboards.

Lindenwold's big move came early in the fourth quarter, when senior Mike Williams hit back-to-back three-point jumpers.

"That was the key to game," Marciano said. "It went from 11 to 5 and we seemed to lose momentum."

Lindenwold finally pulled even when Dean hit a three-pointer with 2 minutes, 41 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.

"We were too hyped early in the game and we stopped playing," Dean said. "Once we settled down and got back to playing defense, we got back in the game."

It was frantic down the stretch. Booshon Warrington's two free throws gave Lindenwold a 50-48 lead, but Wilson answered with two free throws for Overbrook.

Johnson broke the 50-50 tie with 0:56 on the clock, slicing through the Overbrook defense for a layup off a spread offensive set.

"Their big man went to the corner and it opened up," Johnson said.

After Overbrook made one of two free throws with eight seconds remaining, Johnson fed Dean for the final points on a layup as time expired.

"We didn't quit," Little said. "I thought in the middle of the game there we had an opportunity to fold our tents but the kids stayed in there and fought back."

Overbrook 7 24 11 9 - 51

Lindenwold 14 6 15 19 - 54

OV: Tyriek Bullock 9, Nate Cubreath 2, Rashawn Jarido 8, Shaun Love 5, Nick Menear 6, Mike Sloan 3, Jesse Weast 2, Dan Wilson 16.

LN: Carl Dean 17, A.J. Johnson 14, Leon Jones 2, Charles Robinson 2, Booshon Warrington 5, Mike Williams 8, William Johnson 3, David Torres 1, Jason Hutzler 2.