Whoever's feeling it has the green light to shoot the ball, Lake Clifton forward Paris Carter said. "At that particular time, I was just feeling it."

Carter scored 12 of his 20 points in the third period, and reserve Damien Wilder contributed all of his 10 points in the fourth quarter as the fifth-ranked Lakers overcame a five-point halftime deficit in yesterday's 60-53 Baltimore City League victory over ninth-ranked Dunbar.

Tavon Nelson had nine rebounds and eight points, including a crowd-pleasing two-handed dunk that gave the Lakers one of their two 10-point leads in the fourth quarter. Lake Clifton's 6-foot-8 Kyle Garrison had 10 points and six rebounds.

Down 23-18 at halftime, the Lakers (1-1, 1-0) never trailed again after Carter gave them a 27-25, third-quarter lead with his third of four three-pointers during an 11-0 run.

"Once [Carter] hit those threes, we were back on our heels," Dunbar coach Eric "Smiley" Lee said. "From there, they just took control."

For Dunbar (1-1, 0-1), Maurice Barkesdale scored eight of his 18 points in the fourth period, and teammate Herman Hayes had 10 of his 16 in the second half. But the Poets trailed 40-32 after being outscored 22-9 in the third period, and would get no closer than four points (50-46) the rest of the way.

"We settled down as a team," Carter said. "Once we did that, we took off."

As is his customary pre-game ritual, Lakers coach Herman Harried kissed his 30-year-old niece, Nicole Hawkins, on the cheek for good luck.

And early on, his Lakers needed all of the luck they could get.

Down 2-0, Lake Clifton scored seven straight points for a 7-2 lead.

The lead changed seven times from there, including a point at which the Lakers led 10-9 heading into the second period. But a 6-0 run gave Dunbar a 23-16 advantage.

Dunbar's Byron Roundtree came off the bench to score six of his team's last 10 points of the first half.