The absence of Anthony Lindauer affected more than his Moline boys' basketball teammates.

The noon-time suspension of the Western Big 6 Conference scoring leader also threw Friday night foe United Township for a loop before shaking up the league title chase.

``That changed our gameplan and made us adjust on the fly,'' UT star Tayvian Johson said after the Panthers survived a slow start for a 46-35 victory at Moline's Wharton Field House.

``I was going to guard Lindauer, then they switched me to (Tim) Wages. The first quarter I let him get loose because he's a totally different player than Lindauer and I wasn't ready for that. But once I got used to him, that he's a driver more than a shooter, I did a better job defensively on him.''

In the battle between Big 6 leaders, Wages scored eight points in the opening eight minutes for a 10-4 lead by Moline (19-3, 3-2 Big 6).

But after that, Johnson allowed Wages just one more basket in the third quarter and a pair of free throws in the fourth, enroute to a 4-for-19 shooting night.

With Moline managing just five free throws in the second period -- and going nearly 12 minutes between baskets in the first and third quarters -- UT (12-7, 4-1 Big 6) exerted control in the matchup between the No. 1 (Maroons) and No. 4 (Panthers) teams in the Quad Cities Prep Boys' Basketball Power Poll.

UT outscored its neighboring rivals 14-4 in the third quarter, and led by as many as 14 points in the fourth quarter after a steal and slam dunk by Johnson, who hit 8-of-9 shots and finished with game-highs in points (16), steals (3) and blocked shots (3).

Damon Overton chipped in 13 points, and a third UT senior, D.J. McDowell, returned from a two-game suspension to score 11 points and add game-highs in rebounds (7) and assists (5).

``We stunk it up a bit there in the first half, but once we got our footing, I thought we did a good job of adjusting and executing the things we needed to do,'' UT coach Marc Polite said.

``A lot of times, you look at our record, it's not too pretty, largely because we go and get tested. When we lost two weekends ago at Normal West and Pekin, everybody went `Wow, what happened?' But those are good teams. To go on the road and get tested like that, and learn from those situations, now we're able to carry that over to when it really matters.''

The victory not only was Polite's first as a coach in four tries at Wharton, but was UT's first regular-season win over the Maroons in his tenure. UT did knock off Moline in a regional semifinal two seasons ago.

``This is a great feeling,'' Johnson said, ``no matter who played.''

Lindauer was suspended earlier in the afternoon for ``four-to-five games,'' by Moline athletic director Todd Rosenthal for an athletic code violation.

``You have the kind of day we had, and zero times to make adjustments, I give our kids credit for playing hard,'' Moline coach Ryan Webber said. ``But it's tough to all of a sudden, have 3-4 players go to a different spot or different role. We just didn't have a good rhythm or flow to what we were doing.

``But like I told the kids in the locker room, `Better days lie ahead for us than what we're feeling now.' We're only halfway through the conference season, and we're living proof anything and everything can happen in the Big 6. It just seems it keeps happening to us.''

The Maroons lost No. 2 scorer Jamaree Atwater to open the league season Dec. 2 to a broken leg at last-place Galesburg.

Wages was the only Moline player in double figures Friday with 12 points and team-best 5 rebounds.

``Some kids finally got aggressive off the dribble (in the fourth quarter), creating some drive and kick situations,'' Webber said, looking at the positives prior to a trip tonight to state-ranked Normal. 

``We never gave up. We kept clawing. They have some courage and pride. Defensively there's some things we can get better at and offensively we'll be a work in progress for the next couple of weeks, but hopefully we make some improvements.''

Indeed, Polite knows the conference race is hardly over. The Panthers are tied with Rock Island, a Friday winner, who beat UT in this season's first meeting at Rocky. Moline will be back, too, he said.

``That's just life in the Big 6,'' Polite said.  ``So I liked our mentality after we walked off the floor. There was no jumping around. We didn't rush the floor. This is just another win and now we have to keep moving forward. 

``You have big game after big game. And if you don't respond and play your best, that last big game you won is not going to mean a whole lot three weeks from now if we lose to Quincy and Rock Island. So we have to keep continuing to play good basketball, and keep continuing to improve.''