St. Charles East survives scare from host Larkin
There is no column in the standings for style points, just wins and losses.
Thus, even though the St. Charles East boys basketball team's hard-fought 53-48 victory over host Larkin Saturday afternoon was hardly a thing of beauty, it effectively kept the Saints atop the standing in the River Division of the Upstate Eight Conference.
St. Charles East (6-9, 4-1) survived one of the best performances of the season from young Larkin (4-14, 0-5) despite losing the rebounding battle 31-18 and struggling from the free-throw line (17 of 34).
"We'll take a conference win any way we can get it," Saints coach Brian Clodi said. "We're not going to sit here and complain. I think my guys are definitely playing better and playing together as a group, so I think we're heading in the right direction.
"I'm proud of us. They battled. It was nip and tuck all the way and we just found a way to get a W."
The win was the second straight for the Saints, who remain tied with Elgin (11-4, 4-1) and St. Charles North (9-8, 4-1).
The Royals were competitive throughout a game that featured six lead changes through three quarters. Sophomore Mike Woods' second consecutive basket early in the fourth quarter gave the Saints their largest lead of the contest at 7 points, but the Royals eventually drew within 51-48 on a drive by freshman Derrick Streety (8 points) with 2:36 remaining.
Larkin regained possession but threw the ball out of bounds for its 19th turnover before the Royals could attempt a shot.
Senior Zach Zajicek split 2 free throws to put the Saints ahead by 4 points, and Larkin missed each of its next 3 shots down the stretch, all of which were rebounded by Woods and led to more free-throw attempts.
"The final three or four minutes we didn't execute very well against their zone with the plays we like to run against it," Larkin coach Deryn Carter said. "Our guards did a good job of getting shots, which is a problem we've had when we don't execute. We tend to turn it over.
"I just don't think we did a good job of executing the plays we were trying to run."
East did its damage on drives all afternoon long, particularly in the third quarter when they drove to the rim repeatedly against Larkin's young guards. The result? The Saints shot 17 of 33 from the floor (51.5 percent).
"That was part of the game plan," said St. Charles East junior guard Charlie Fisher, who scored 10 points. "We knew those guys would get in your face and gamble a little bit, and we knew if they did that we could go right by them and make a play."
Though his young team's mental mistakes clearly frustrated their coach multiple times during the contest, Carter lauded his team's effort against a first-place team.
"As competitive as I am, I hate to say it but you've got to take positives away from this," the second-year coach said. "That's a good team. We match up sizewise, so I think that kind of helped. We were right there the whole time ... We're just not used to being in that position (in the final minutes)."