Boys Basketball: Linden falls to Patrick School in double OT

HILLSIDE - New season, same Tavon Jones. 

Jones scored a career-high 41 points on Tuesday night, and did everything in his power to try and lift the Linden High School boys basketball team over the Patrick School, but after 40 minutes, the Celtics walked away with a 84-82 double overtime victory.

"It was a good game, we could of gave up," Jones said. "The third quarter we gave up the lead, I think that was a crucial part of the game, we kept fighting, kept digging, but at the end of the day they executed just a little bit better than us."

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Jones, who is now averaging 26 points per game for Linden (9-2), and senior Mikey Watkins (13.4 points per game), are two of three returning players from last year's Tournament of Champions semifinalist team that lost 11 players to graduation. 

Jones, a senior, has been tasked with leading the younger players on the team this season, but fortunately for the Tigers, Jones has learned from some of the best. 

"I had great leaders in the past, Otis Livingston, Juwan Dolbrice, Khalief Crawford, Joey Krempa, and so many more so," Jones said. "I've been blessed with this opportunity and I'm up for the challenge."

Linden has been dealing with a youth movement of sorts this season. On Tuesday night, sophomore Myles Ruth finished with 12 points while junior Shadarac Petit-Homme scored 13 points.

"No way in the world I thought going into this game that we'd be 9-1, I really didn't," Linden coach Phil Colicchio said. "We're a young team, we have Tavon and Mikey back but we're a relatively young team." 

On Tuesday against the Patrick School the Tigers' inexperience showed at times, but they still put up a fight. 

Down 76-74 with 6.3 seconds remaining in the first overtime, Jones took the ball on an inbounds past, ran the length of the court and scored with just seconds remaining to tie the game 76-76 and send the game to double overtime. 

The Patrick School took an 82-77 lead with 1:13 remaining, and Jones cut it to 82-80 on a three-point play with 26.9 seconds left. Alejandro Vasquez scored to put the Celtics up four with 13.4 seconds left, and Watkins scored with 4.6 seconds to go to pull Linden within 84-82.

Linden got the ball back after the Patrick School inbounded the ball and turned it over, but time ran out before the Tigers could score for the 84-82 final. 

The Tigers led 14-9 after closing out the first quarter on a 8-0 run, and then opened the second quarter on a 9-2 run to stretch their lead to 23-11 with 5:32 remaining. Linden had a 10-point lead with 37.4 seconds left in the half, but turned the ball over which led to a basket by Al-Amir Dawes, which cut the lead to 32-24 at halftime. 

The Patrick School staged a comeback in third quarter, outscoring Linden 21-12 to take a 45-44 lead after three. 

"We lost that game in the third quarter tonight, obviously," Colicchio said. "The first three or four minutes of the third quarter is where we lost the game. My kids are a little fatigued, we're playing six guys. Tavon hasn't come off the court all season, Mikey I think has come out once, they're playing major minutes, so I think in year's past we come out and we have a bad shot, get out and we put someone else in, we really don't have that right now."

The fourth quarter saw three ties and four lead changes. The Celtics held a 65-61 lead on a 3-pointer by Daryl Banks III with 1:08 left, but free throws from Petit-Homme and Watkins cut the lead to 65-64 with 44.1 seconds left. 

A basket by Valdir Mannuel, who finished with a team-high 29 points, put the Patrick School back ahead 67-64 with 36.3 seconds left. Watkins, who finished with 13 points, then hit a 3-pointer with 17.2 seconds remaining to send the game to overtime. 

"We gotta box out, a lot of their points were in the paint, I think we did good perimeter defense wise, we just have to box out, little things, but little things add up at the end of the game," Jones said. "They just executed a little bit better than us, but I'm not disappointed at all in my team, my team played well, coaches coached well, so that's all we can ask for."

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com; on Twitter: @laurenknego