Larkin holds off Maine West in overtime

Larkin point guard Jeff Saurbaugh had simply had it.

During a Royals' timeout, he told his team that there was no way it was going to lose to Maine West.

The Royals responded by outscoring the visiting Warriors 14-4 in overtime to take a 60-50 nonconference victory Wednesday night in Elgin.

"Once we got a couple of points, we felt the momentum swing," said Saurbaugh, who led all scorers with 15 points.

Maine West (1-7) struck first in overtime as Alex Samuelson (8 points) put his team up 48-46. The Royals (4-4) responded with a pair of 3-point plays by Brandon Cooks (11 points, 12 rebounds, 3 steals, 3 assists) and Terell John (14 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists) to go ahead 52-48 with 2:12 left. Cooks, John and Anthony Barracks would all score again before Maine West was able to score another basket, an uncontested layup with 5 seconds remaining and Larkin leading 60-48.

"We had to get the ball to Terell, that was our focus," Larkin coach Larry Hight said. "We wanted to lay off the 3 (pointers). We took over the game inside."

The Royals were able to take over the game inside when 6-foot 7-inch Maine West center Tommy Solis picked up his fourth foul in the fourth quarter. Without Solis, who finished with 11 points, Larkin was able to drive the lane. All of the Royals' 14 overtime points came in the paint or from the free-throw line.

John scored 8 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, Barracks scored 4 and Cooks scored 5 in OT.

"It's not how tall you are, it's how tall you play," Maine West coach Erik McNeill said. "We wanted to try to get the ball inside (to Solis). We couldn't get the ball down low."

With Solis in the game it was a much different story. Larkin looked to coast into the fourth quarter after going up 39-29 with 3:26 left in the third quarter.

Maine West had different plans as it went on a 12-0 run to close out the quarter and took a 40-39 lead off of a Sebastian Stasiakiewicz basket with 20 seconds left to play.

The Royals - after Saurbaugh's speech - did score 6 points in the final 4:44 of the fourth quarter to force the overtime. Saurbaugh (6 assists, 3 steals) brought Larkin within a basket midway through the period.

Samuelson stole an inbound pass and made a layup with 31 seconds left to force the overtime. Alex Seiler finished with 5 assists for the Warriors.