Streamwood able to hold off Larkin

The Larkin boys basketball team nearly ended its turbulent week with a streak-busting victory, but Marcus Greene's 2 late free throws and clutch shot block with time running out lifted host Streamwood to a 56-54 Upstate Eight Conference win Saturday afternoon in Streamwood.

Larkin took the court under the supervision of acting coach Steve Knaap, who is filling in for suspended coach Deryn Carter until the IHSA rules on his certification status.

The Royals rallied from a 49-40 deficit early in the fourth quarter to take a 52-51 lead when Garrett McDaniel splashed 2 free throws with 1:11 left in the game. However, sophomore Dalton Lundeen put the Sabres back in front on their ensuing possession with a 3-pointer from the corner.

A determined McDaniel knotted the game at 54 when he was fouled on a baseline move and split a pair from the line with 43 seconds remaining. "I tied it up, but we couldn't finish it," McDaniel said.

Greene saw to that. After Streamwood inbounded the ball with 17 seconds left, the 6-foot-4 senior forward drove through the lane, rose for a running shot and drew a blocking foul on McDaniel, who attempted to draw the charge. Greene sank both free throws with 11 seconds left for what turned out to be the final margin of victory.

Knapp drew up a play that called for Larkin senior guard Ryan Smith to receive the ball off two screens as the first option. Smith had already connected on 7-of-11 attempts from 3-point range and had canned 6 straight 3-pointers in the second and third quarters.

"Once I hit a couple in the first half it seemed like our offense started picking it up as a team," Smith said. "Everyone else started hitting some shots and playing with more intensity. That's when we started making our run."

However, Streamwood had Smith well covered on the final play, so Larkin point guard Leandre Lee did as told and drove to the hoop. His layup attempt was blocked from behind by Greene, though.

"I just went up to block it because I didn't want him to get an easy shot," Greene said. "After all of our close games it was good to come out on the other end of it."

The victory ended a 3-game skid for Streamwood (7-13, 3-5), which lost its previous three games by a combined total of 9 points. The Sabres were happy to get a win, even if it wasn't textbook.

"We just shoot ourselves in the foot too many times and that comes back to haunt us later on in the year," Sabres coach Tim Jones said. "Hopefully, by this time of year you're starting to execute a lot better. Our execution wasn't great."

The loss was the 12th straight for Larkin (7-15, 1-7), which played without two starters and a reserve due to injuries and academic ineligibility issues.

"I think we played pretty much 100 percent of how we could today," Knaap said. "Coming off of everything that's going on, they played well."

McDaniel said the off-court issues surrounding Carter's suspension affected the team's preparation.

"It really did make an impact on us," McDaniel said. "This late in the season switching up coaches is really hard. We have coach Knaap and he did a good job. It wasn't coach's fault or anything. But I think that made it tougher during the week in practice, trying to cope with the new coach and everything."

Smith finished with a game-high 23 points for Larkin. Senior Marcus Lewis led Streamwood with 19 points and 4 steals, sophomore Lorenzo Mitchell had 11 points and 9 rebounds and Greene added 9 points.