DEMOPOLIS &045; The John Essex Hornets was no mach for the Linden Patriots last night. They dropped a home area game to Linden, 60-42.

Linden set the tone right from the start, opening the first quarter with an 8-2 run in the first four minutes. They went up 16-3 with less than two minutes to play in the quarter and ended the quarter with an 18-7 score. Marcus Catlin dropped in 10 for the Patriots in the quarter.

Linden held a double-digit lead through out the second quarter, but John Essex cut its deficit to nine by the half. The Hornets went into the locker room at the half down 28-19.

The Patriots pushed their advantage back up to double digits early in the third quarter and the Hornets never recovered. The size of the Linden team started to take its toll on John Essex.

The Patriots began the fourth quarter the way that started the first quarter, with an 8-3 run in the first four minutes of the fourth. That put the game out of reach for the Hornets as Linden went up 52-35 with four minutes to play. John Essex never got as close as 12 the rest of the way. &8220;We still must work on our lay ups and free throws,&8221; Armstead said.

Linden’s JaMarlin Leduff topped all scorers with 16 points. The Patriots improve their area record to 5-2. They go on the road to Isabella for another area match up on Friday.

Lady Patriots tops Lady Hornets in basketball action, 36-20

Linden scored 13 points in the second quarter to build a 22-13 half time lead. They followed that by holding John Essex to no points in the third quarter to pull away to a 19-point advantage and coasted the rest of the way.

Megan Hinton led the way for the Lady Patriots with 12 points. Maria Daniels had seven for John Essex.