Downers North holds off Larkin rally

Same date. Same two teams. Same bad weather. Same result.

On Dec. 9, 2008, the Downers Grove North boys basketball team's bus plodded along for two hours on snowy suburban roads to reach Larkin High School for a nonconference game in Elgin. The Trojans built a big lead in that game and withstood a late Larkin rally to win by 5 points.

Fast forward 365 days to Wednesday night, when the Larkin team bus took two hours to reach Downers North. The game started an hour late, and the Trojans built the same big lead as the year before - a 16-point advantage with 5:31 left in the game.

Again Larkin rallied, pulling within 62-56 on senior Drew Simonini's 3-pointer with 40 seconds left in the game. However, Downers North (3-3) sank 3-of-4 free throws down the stretch to hold off Larkin (4-2) by a 65-58 final score.

The Royals shot 21 of 57 from the floor overall, 6 of 23 in the first half when the Trojans built their 29-21 halftime lead on 12-of-27 shooting.

"They tried to play a little faster than we anticipated," Larkin coach Deryn Carter said. "When you're not making shots guys play a little less hard on defense. It's got to be the alternative. We have to get our energy from our defensive end and right now they're used to getting it from the offensive end. But they're still playing hard. We're proud of them, but they just came up a little short."

Trailing by 16 in the final period, Larkin spurted for a 10-2 run on consecutive 3-pointers by Ryan Smith (game-high 16 points) and Simonini (12 points) and layups by Smith and Alex Wahl (12 points). But the Royals could never get over the hump.

"The same thing happened last year," said Trojans senior Nick LeBeau, who finished with 11 points. "We had a big lead but we just couldn't put these guys away."

Five Trojans scored in double figures, led by Kyle Benton's 12 points.