advertisement

Black's 3-pointer sends Larkin past Deerfield; South Elgin wins 2

ROCKFORD - Deerfield was on fire from the 3-point line all night, but Larkin hit the one that mattered most.

Pierre Black hit a shot from the corner with one second remaining to give the Royals a 68-66 win in the J-Hawk MLK Showcase at Jefferson High School Saturday.

The Warriors led most of the game, thanks to unconscious 3-point shooting. Deerfield finished 10-of-16 from behind the arc, making 6 of 8 in the first half.

The Warriors led 66-65 and had the ball with time winding down. But Kindrel Morris came up with a steal at midcourt and fed the ball to Kashmir Ivy, who found Black all alone in the corner. His shot hit nothing but net.

Deerfield's desperation heave at the buzzer was well short.

Larkin coach Deryn Carter debated calling a timeout to set up a final shot, but decided to take advantage of the chaos.

"What you hope for is to get something before the defense can get set up," said Carter, whose team is now 10-9. "You battle as a coach, do you want to call a timeout. And knowing that they were playing zone, I thought we'd be better off trying to get something while they weren't set up. (That was an) unselfish extra pass by Kashmir, and that's why you win a game."

Jalen Shaw led all scorers with 28 points to go with 8 rebounds. He scored 10 points in the first quarter to help the Royals to an early 18-13 lead.

"He's just trying to grow and trying to get better," Carter said. "His ceiling's so high. He's nowhere near it, but as long as he keeps learning and trying to get better, he's got a chance to be a really good player."

Black finished with 16 points, including all 4 of the Royals' 3-pointers, while Anthony Lynch added a dozen points. Ivy added 6 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and a block.

The Warriors led 66-63 with 26 seconds left. But Shaw scored on a putback and, after a Larkin timeout, Morris got the steal.

Larkin 75, Belvidere 62: In their first game of the day the Royals got a game-high 26 points from Kashmir Ivy. Anthony Lynch added 18 and Jalen Shaw 16.

South Elgin wins two: South Elgin won twice at Jefferson Saturday.

The Storm opened with a 68-57 win over Rockford Guilford as Logan Atkins scored 21 points and David Binion added 11. South Elgin (10-6) then knocked off Harlem 70-49 as Atkins again led the way with 16 points.

Batavia splits: Eric Peterson had 20 points and Colin Cheaney added 15 as the Bulldogs opened the Jefferson MLK Tournament with a 61-41 win over Harlem. Batavia (10-9) then lost to Belvidere 54-50.

The Bulldogs trailed most of the game, but battled back to get within striking distance down the stretch. Batavia had a chance to take the lead, but couldn't connect on a 3-pointer. Belvidere then added 2 free throws to ice it.

"The game was lost in the second and third quarters," said Batavia coach Jim Nazos. "I really thought that they did a lot of good things to us. They got second chances, they got loose balls, throughout the whole second and third quarter, and we were kind of on our heels, and we got buried a little bit."

Colin Cheaney scored 15 points to lead Batavia, while Eric Peterson added 12. William Morris scored 14 points for the Bucs.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.