Adams' 3 at buzzer lifts Larkin past St. Charles East
Before the game, Larkin guard Keion Adams earned a warm reception by the crowd as a senior playing in his final game on the Royals' home court.
At game's end, that crowd eventually found its way to him on the court in a crazy mob scene overcome by his improbable last-second heroics.
Adams was rushed after he sank one of the wildest 3-point buzzer-beaters in recent memory, as his high-arching banker from the right wing finalized Larkin's 57-55 comeback win over St. Charles East in Upstate Eight River boys basketball action Friday in Elgin, that subsequently gave Batavia an outright UEC River championship.
Adams' shot was in many thanks to Larkin reserve Kashmir Ivy, who stole East's inbound pass - a half-court heave from under Larkin's basket with 2.2 second left. Ivy skied for the ball and came down with it along the baseline near the scorers table, and just in the nick of time rifled the ball up to Adams in front of the Larkin bench. Adams was able to change his senior night from forgettable to forever memorable.
"It happened so quick, I didn't even look at the rim, I just shot it and said 'please go in,' and it went it and I saw (the crowd) rushing me and it was such a great feeling," said Adams, who scored 7 points. "I just turned and said to myself 'put it up' and God's got me. God has me. And nothing but God. Coach said 'shoot, shoot,' so I turned around and shot the ball and it went in."
Thankfully quick decision-making capped an amazing comeback for Larkin (14-10, 6-5), which was down 8 points with 2:09 left. Even a critical decision by Ivy on the steal might be overlooked at this point in Deryn Carter's 100th win as Royals coach.
"I didn't want to shoot it because I felt like if I shot it, it was going to be off and it's going too bad," Ivy said. "So I gave it to Keion because he was closer to the hoop than I was and I'm glad he made it."
"Heck of a play, you know?" said East coach Pat Woods. "All we said is that we have to throw it in and we have to catch it. We didn't catch it but reality is we didn't lose the game on that play; to me we lost it a couple possessions when they were shooting free throws and two different occasions in a row we didn't get that free box out and they got it twice and that killed us."
The Saints (13-12, 7-4), who were led by Zach Mitchell and Justin Hardy with 14 points each, had soundly beaten the Royals 2 weeks ago 59-52. They were efficient again shooting 48.7 percent and held Christian Negron in check for 3 quarters. But in the fourth Negron scored 12 of his game-high 15 points, and made an even greater impact after he was fouled with 50.4 left with Larkin down 50-45.
Negron missed the back end of the 1-and-1 that was rebounded by AJ Hunter with 49.2 left, who was fouled. Hunter split a pair as well, as Negron rebounded the miss with 46.6 left, was fouled and sank 2 free throws to cut East's lead to 1.
With East holding a 55-52 lead in the final seconds, Keyvon Kyles' 3 to tie missed but Ivy's putback and subsequent timeout by Carter allowed Adams' heroics to occur.
"The ending is what everyone's going to remember but I'm proud of the way we executed down the stretch," Carter said. "It's got to be special, we got on the board 'How do you want to be remembered?' We say it every senior night and you can't ask for something better."