Larkin presses on, dumps Batavia
Larkin snared twice as many rebounds as Batavia in the first half of Wednesday's Upstate Eight River meeting in Elgin, but the Royals didn't pull away for a 71-58 victory until their guards intensified the defensive pressure in the second half.
Junior Canaan Coffey's 3-pointer kept Batavia within 28-24 at halftime even though the Bulldogs had been outrebounded 18-9.
Not only did that trend continue in the second half, another developed: turnovers. Larkin's guards upped their intensity in the third quarter, forcing 7 of Batavia's 20 miscues to spark a 21-9 third quarter in favor of the Royals (7-3, 4-1), who won their third straight.
"It was basically our defense," said Larkin guard Charles Sanders, who had 2 steals and 12 points. "That's what we pride ourselves on, that's what we love to do: play defense."
Larkin coach Deryn Carter said Batavia guards like Coffey, Jacob Roberts and Carter Eberhardt did a solid job of pressuring Larkin's guards for a half until he reminded his players at halftime they were capable of better.
"We told them, 'Hey, you can play, too. You can go ahead and make some plays against their pressure,'" Carter said. "They responded. A lot of our offense in the third quarter was off the defensive end."
Larkin played well in the frontcourt throughout. Sophomore Christian Negron had 2 fourth-quarter dunks among his team-high 15 points, senior Daniel McFadden pulled down 7 rebounds and scored 14 points via a combination of putbacks and solid post moves and 6-7 senior Tanner Gardon came off the bench to contribute 5 points and 5 rebounds despite feeling under the weather of late, according to his coach.
"We worked it around, ran some set plays, just got it down to me and I was aggressive," McFadden said. "I took my time in the paint and just tried to get to the rim."
"Negron's long. McFadden's strong. Nice punch there," Batavia coach Jim Nazos said. "And not to mention the other guy (Gardon) who is very nifty around the basket and getting the ball up. We had trouble with them. This game is a shared responsibility. We have to take care of the ball. We have to get rebounds. If we don't, we're looking at giving up 71 points like we did."
Batavia (5-4, 1-4) trailed by 18 points early in the fourth quarter, but the Bulldogs trimmed the deficit to single digits twice as 6-7 Chasen Peez caught fire. The senior scored 18 of his game-high 22 points in the final eight minutes on 6-of-8 shooting and 3 free throws, but it wasn't enough to overcome Larkin's 43-point second half performance, 20 turnovers and a 34-22 rebounding disadvantage.
"I think we just had terrible turnovers and we let up so (many) boards and putbacks," Peez said. "Really, I think those were the three biggest things that killed us."