St. Charles East 77, Larkin 39
Putting an emotional loss from nearly a week ago in the rearview mirror, St. Charles East's boys basketball team took out its frustration on struggling Larkin Friday night.
Hitting their first 8 field goal attempts, the Saints (8-10, 4-3) shot out to a 21-3 lead in the first 6 minutes and held a commanding 47-17 halftime advantage.
As the final buzzer sounded, the Saints, who led by as many as 45 points at 64-19 late in the third quarter, had cruised to a 77-39 Upstate Eight Conference triumph.
"We believe we're a good team -- we're not a 7-10 (team)," said Saints coach Brian Clodi. "There are only three games where we haven't had the lead in the fourth quarter. We just keep saying, 'It's time, guys.'
"We've given up 75 points the last two games and you're not going to win (doing that) come regional time. We emphasized defense (tonight) and we just said, 'we've got to take it out on these guys. All the frustrations, all of that needs to come out in this game. It just so happened that they (the Royals) were next."
The Royals, (1-17, 0-7), who connected on just 1 of their first 9 field goal attempts in the opening quarter and misfired on their first 9 shots in the second stanza, were completely taken out of their game.
"Our record is not good but believe it or not, that's the first time I can say we've been dominated the whole game," said Larkin coach Larry Hight. "This is the first time we've gotten our lunch handed to us.
"We didn't have an answer for it. Their defense wouldn't let us run our offense."
St. Charles East, which was outscored 48-31 in the second half during last Saturday's 75-64 loss to cross-town rival St. Charles North, came out with a purpose Friday night.
"After that North game, it kind of sank in that it's now or never," said junior guard Zach Scott (6 points), who canned 2 of the Saints' 8 three-pointers. "We need to come together and finish off the season."
Like a hockey coach shuffling lines, Clodi substituted freely throughout, often making 5-for-5 lineup switches.
"We played two groups and challenged the first group versus the second group to see which group was going to score the most points," said Clodi.
For the record, the starters, led by Kevin Senechalle's 10 points, edged the second group, 34-33.
Senior Collin Pryor paced the second unit, scoring 11 of his game-high 19 points in the second quarter.
"That first group got us off to a good start, and then Collin (came in) with the second group -- he obviously performed."
St. Charles East visits Geneva Saturday night (6 p.m. tipoff).
"It'll be a great test," said Clodi.
Ryan Shriver came off the bench to lead Larkin with 9 points.