Late-arriving Centennial puts Larkin away early

Elgin graduate Todd Allen and the Centennial boys basketball team he coaches in Las Vegas had one of those nightmare travel days Monday.

The Bulldogs played Larkin in the Day 1 finale at the 36th Annual Elgin Holiday Tournament and won, 66-38, but getting there was an adventure.

First, their plane was delayed two hours at McCarron Airport in Vegas. When they finally got halfway down the runway on takeoff, the pilot decided to shut it down and taxi back to the gate, where the Bulldogs were forced to deplane and try again later.

"We didn't know if we were going to get out here because we knew snow was coming," Allen said.

Centennial's plane eventually made it out of Las Vegas and landed in Rockford shortly before 6 p.m., two hours before the scheduled tipoff at Elgin.

"Then we get to Rockford and there are no rental cars for us," said Allen, whose players eventually inched their way to Elgin along snowy I-90 in a caravan of cars rented by players' parents. "We've had one heck of a day, but the kids came out and played well. I'm proud of the guys. They had a long day. I'm proud of their effort."

Tipoff was delayed 45 minutes. Once the game got under way, Centennial (8-1), a more experienced and athletic team than Larkin (2-9), jumped to a 16-6 lead in the first quarter only to see the Royals storm back with their best sequence of the game.

The Royals finished the first quarter on a 10-0 run to tie the game 16-16, fueled by a pair of 3-pointers from freshman guard Derrick Streety, a steal and a runout by sophomore Quantice Hunter and a long jumper from Matt Rice.

However, Centennial took over in the second quarter, thanks to a trapping defense that forced 9 Larkin turnovers and limited the Royals to 1-of-11 shooting in the period.

Larkin was burned on three occasions by Centennial offensive rebounds that resulted in second-chance buckets. Larkin managed just 3 points in the quarter, and Centennial led 30-19 at halftime.

"They're a good team," Larkin coach Deryn Carter said. "They run and jump, they trap, you never know where it's coming from and not knowing them doesn't help. Our guys fought for a little bit, but it got to be a little too much for us."

Larkin lost the battle of the boards 36-27.

"We knew they were athletic, but we needed to box out and we didn't box out," Hunter said. "They kept getting offensive rebounds and they took over. We didn't hustle enough."

Senior guard Aaseem Dixon led Centennial with 19 points while 6-foot-5 junior Evan Martin contributed 14 points and 6 rebounds and sophomore guard Marcus Allen added 13 points.

Hunter (10 points) was the only Royal to crack double digits in scoring.

Larkin will play Hoffman Estates today at 10:45 a.m. Centennial will face Elgin in the winner's bracket at 3:15 p.m.