South Elgin 60, Larkin 47

South Elgin knew exactly how it needed to come out in the second half of Friday's Upstate Eight Conference girls basketball game at Larkin.

After the Storm was whistled for 17 fouls in the first half, it found its offense with a 14-1 run to open the second half.

The run, which was led by 8 points from sophomore Dijon Smith, allowed the Storm to secure a 39-27 lead after three quarters. South Elgin went on to a 60-47 victory at Larkin.

South Elgin (5-5, 1-1) used all three of its post players to overcome 33 team fouls in the victory. Junior center Courtney Kumerow (18 points), Kaleigh Irwin (8 points) and Smith (12 points) combined for 38 of South Elgin's 60 points. The trio scored 24 of those points in the second half.

"We have post players," Storm coach Tim Prendergast said. "We have to work on feeding the post players."

Alexa Kruel (5 assists) led a Storm offensive attack which finished with 16 assists in the game. South Elgin also improved its rebounding, after Larkin won the battle on the glass 18-12 in the first half. Alyssa Krause finished the third quarter with 8 rebounds, 2 offensive, in the third quarter alone. South Elgin won the second-half battle 22-16.

"We just looked into the posts," Smith said. "We played smart basketball."

Larkin (1-7, 1-1) could not find its shooting rhythm until it was too late. Larkin shot 13.5 percent (5 of 37) in the first three quarters. The Royals upped their percentage to 33 (5 of 15) in the fourth quarter. Alyssa Burns finished with a game-high 22 points for the Royals and scored 18 of Larkin's 28 second-half points.

"We just started slow in the first quarter," said Burns, who added 5 steals and 2 assists. "We sparked a little too late. We need to get all of our game together."

Although Larkin drew 33 fouls and went to the free-throw line 38 times in the game, the Royals were only able to convert 24 times (63.1 percent). At one point in the second quarter, Larkin was just 3 of 8 from the foul line.

After bring the game to 23-19 at halftime, Larkin also missed its first 13 shots of the second half before Burns connected on a 3-pointer with 46 seconds left in the third quarter.

"We missed free throws and we missed layups," Royals coach Amy Silverman said. "You can't win if the ball doesn't go in the basket. We missed way too much."

Larkin also fell victim to the whistle, being called for 23 fouls in the game. The Storm finished the game going 11 of 25 from the line.