LINDEN &8212; For the first time this year, Linden High School wasn&8217;t the bigger team on the court Monday night when they tipped off against Sunshine High School.

And for the first two and a half periods of the game the Patriots looked to be hanging in the game by a thread as Sunshine tried to turn their meager lead into a comfortable cushion on the way to a win. What the Linden group lacked in height, though, they made up for in tenacity as they kept nipping on Sunshine&8217;s heels until they took their first lead, 47-45, with 6:57 left in the game and pushed forward on momentum to a 65-59 win.

Linden&8217;s coach Eddie Armstead had a different take on the late in the game swing of power in the Patriot&8217;s favor:

There was definitely a noticeable difference in the Sunshine defense and offense as they found themselves behind for the first time in the final period of play. The team that began the game taking time and setting up plays to control the clock on offense found themselves throwing up desperate threes in the last minutes to cut the lead.

Linden didn&8217;t have the same problem, as the team finally found footing in the paint and began dominating the glass in the last period and a half. The foul trouble pointed to by Armstead forced the Sunshine defense to play less physically, which made the previously daunting zone defense a blunt tool.

Leading scorers for Linden were Sean Richardson with 18 (13 coming in the final period), Kendarius Goodwill with 17 and Anjalon Bruno with 14. Leading the Tigers were Dayton Mickens with 14, Marcus Lee with 13 and Royce Hamilton with 10.