Waubonsie halts Larkin comeback, ends 5-game skid
Yeah, Waubonsie Valley let Larkin back into the game in the fourth quarter Saturday night.
But when you're riding a five-game losing streak, a win is a win. Style points count for nothing.
The Warriors allowed Larkin just 12 first-half points and stymied the Royals into a 3-of-28 shooting performance from the floor, appearing to have Saturday's Upstate Eight Conference boys basketball game already in hand.
Instead, Waubonsie Valley (2-7, 1-2) needed to hold off a late Larkin charge in the fourth before snapping its skid with a 56-43 victory in Aurora.
"We were a fragile basketball team this week, but we've worked really hard in practice and had great practices," Waubonsie Valley coach Steve Weemer said. "Our guys finally believed they could get it going.
"This was huge for our psyche."
Senior guard Tyler Perkins paced the Warriors' attack, scoring a game-high 26 points. His 12 first-half points equaled the entire Larkin output, and his 16th point midway through the third quarter briefly put him ahead of the Royals 16-14.
"(I was) basically just playing, having fun out there and playing hard," Perkins said. "That's what we wanted our motto to be tonight - come out and don't let them outplay us and have fun."
The Royals (6-3, 1-1) began the fourth quarter trailing 37-21 but refused to go quietly. A Ryan Smith 3-pointer with 2:50 remaining pulled Larkin within 10 points, and Smith's layup a minute later sliced Waubonsie Valley's lead to 44-36.
Jermaine Clements' layup with 1:13 in the fourth inched Larkin to 47-40, but the Royals could cut the deficit no smaller.
"It had been 24 minutes of very bad basketball. You see that last quarter, and you wish they would've come out with that," Royals coach Deryn Carter said. "Maybe we could've done something different as a staff, but at least they kept fighting."
The late-game comeback couldn't lessen the sting Carter felt after watching Waubonsie Valley's defense force the Royals into poor shot selection.
"Give some credit to Waubonsie. They came out and did some things to take us out of what we wanted to do," he said. "When we got good shots we couldn't make them, but we had a tough time choosing what shots were good and what shots were bad."
Perkins sees Saturday's victory as a potential season-changing game.
"We were pretty down on ourselves," the 5-foot-11 senior said, "and now we're kind of relieved and want to get rolling and have this as our starting point to keep going."