Darius Fuller's long nightmare against Marcus Paige is finally over.

Fuller popped in 14 points Saturday night and helped keep Linn-Mar's superstar under control as the Kennedy Cougars upset the No. 6 Lions, 56-51, at Kennedy.

It was Kennedy's first victory over Linn-Mar since the 2005-06 campaign, six years ago.

Paige scored 18 points but shot a woeful 3-for-16 from the floor as Fuller and Trevor Heitland hounded him all game.

"This is the first time I've beaten him," Fuller said. "So it felt good. It felt real good."

Fuller did not mean the first time he's beaten Paige in high school. He meant the first time ever.

"Since I was little he's been whupping my butt, maybe since second grade he's been whupping me," Fuller said.

Grade school, middle school, AAU ball, high school. Paige won them all, so many that Fuller lost count.

"It's up in the 30s, probably. I'm not joking," he said. "We scrimmaged him when I was little all the time. It definitely felt good to get it."

Fuller is still fairly little at 5-foot-9, compared to Paige at 6-foot-2. Heitland isn't much bigger at 5-foot-11, but the two Cougars took turns pestering Paige all night.

Paige poured in 46 points last week against Prairie and averages about 28 per game, but he had trouble against the Cougars.

"We tried to do whatever we could," Heitland said. "He's a tremendous player, as everyone knows. You know he's going to try and get what he can and distribute the ball when he's not scoring."

Kennedy wanted to trap Paige and get the ball out of his hands as much as possible. First Fuller, then Heitland, all night.

"We just wanted to keep fresh legs on him and get up in him and try to make him get rid of the ball and make the other teammates try to win the game," Heitland said.

Paige scored 11 of his 18 points at the foul line. He made only one 3-pointer and had two other buckets.

"I think they defended him well," Linn-Mar Coach Chris Robertson said. "They had a good plan for him. If you can't free him up, it's tough.

"They got after us and they defended us. That's what they hang their hat on and we didn't do a very good job of adjusting to things. That's the way it goes."

Kennedy Coach Bob Fontana liked his team's defensive effort, especially the work by Fuller and Heitland on Paige.

"I was very honest and up-front with them," Fontana remarked. "I said, 'You know, you're not going to stop him. What we have to try and do is control him.'"

Paige fouled out with 12.1 seconds left and the Lions (13-4, 9-3) trailing 53-48.

Fontana thought Fuller played a strong all-around game with his offense, defense, ballhandling, rebounding and passing, with only a few turnovers at point guard.

"To do that, and then have to guard Marcus Paige, that's just an outstanding floor game," Fontana said. "I know the boxscore says he scored 14, but in my mind he had a hell of a lot more than that when you add in those other statistics."

Linn-Mar led 25-21 at halftime, but Kennedy (13-4, 8-4) outscored the Lions 19-10 in the third period to take a 40-35 advantage into the final stanza. Jimmy Roth hit a 3-pointer to pull Linn-Mar within 47-44 and Jon Schlotterback made a layup to get the Lions within 48-46 with 1:20 left to play.

Josiah Coleman made two free throws for Kennedy to give the Cougars a 50-46 edge. Roth missed a shot and Fuller hit one free throw to make it 51-46 with 38.7 seconds left.

Paige missed a finger-roll layup, then fouled Elliott Christians to stop the clock. Christians cashed both free throws to make it 53-46 with 31 seconds to go.

Matt Meier, who scored 14 points for Linn-Mar, made a layup with 14.6 seconds remaining to make it 53-48. Coleman hit one free throw to make it 54-48, then Zach Martins missed a 3-pointer for the Lions in the final 10 seconds.

Cody Bell hit two foul shots for Kennedy with 4.7 seconds left to make it 56-48. Roth hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer for the final score.

There were 44 fouls in the choppy 32-minute game, with 23 fouls by Linn-Mar and 21 by Kennedy. Neither club shot well at the charity stripe, with the Lions 13 of 22 and the Cougars 19 of 31.

Both clubs host top-10 opponents Tuesday night. Kennedy hosts No. 1 Iowa City West and Linn-Mar entertains No. 7 Dubuque Senior.

LINN-MAR (51): Martins 1 0-0 2, Paige 3 11-13 18, Roth 2 0-0 6, Henry 2 1-2 5, Gogg 0 0-5 0, Dick 2 0-0 4, Schlotterback 1 0-0 2, Meier 5 1-2 14. Totals 16 13-22 51.

KENNEDY (56): Heitland 2 1-2 5, Fuller 5 4-8 14, Coleman 1 4-6 6, Bell 2 3-7 7, Christians 1 7-8 9, Jahlas 0 0-0 0, Hayden 3 0-0 7, Struss 1 0-0 2, Martin 3 0-0 6. Totals 18 19-31 56.

Halftime - Linn-Mar 25, Kennedy 21. 3-point goals - Linn-Mar 6 (Meier 3, Roth 2, Paige 1), Kennedy 1 (Hayden 1). Fouled out - Paige, Henry, Gogg. Technical foul - Linn-Mar bench.