BY MICHAEL WOJTYCHIW — FOR SUN-TIMES MEDIA                          Jan 20, 2011

If defense wins games, Lincoln Park should become accustomed to winning a lot of them. The Lions’ smothering defense was the catalyst of their 60-36 Red-North win over Lane on Wednesday afternoon.

The Lions (11-8, 6-1) created seven turnovers out of Lane’s first eight possessions, including four steals, two each by Jeremy Muhammed and Ramon Ajose. Lincoln Park caused 28 turnovers for the game, including 19 steals.

“We pride ourselves in our defense,” said Charles George, who finished with eight points for Lincoln Park. “We take defense more importantly, as you can see, it leads to a lot of our offense.”

That defense allowed the Lions to get out to a 21-0 lead, holding the Indians without a field goal until the 2:03 remaining in the first period. The team led 25-2 after the period.

But Lane (9-10, 3-3) was able to calm itself down from there, as it created eight turnovers in the second period. The Indians were able to convert those turnovers into four points, closing the gap to 33-10 at the half.

“We seemed to become too comfortable after the first quarter,” said George. “We can’t allow for that to happen.”

The two teams were evenly matched for the second half, as the Lions outscored Lane 27-26 in the second half. Darien Walls, who led the Lions in scoring, scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half.

“It was nice to get out to the fast start, because we don’t always do that,” said George. “We normally seem to just respect our opponents too much, that we forget to play Lincoln Park basketball. If we do that, we’re pretty good.”

Jeremy Muhammed scored nine points, while Rashad Wahab also had eight points for Lincoln Park. John Cook led Lane with eight points, while Sadzid Grahic added six.