Dundee-Crown deals Larkin 1st loss
The look on Dundee-Crown coach Lance Huber's face was part exhilaration, part relief after his Chargers rallied from a 14-point deficit with 11 minutes left to knock off undefeated Larkin 66-61 in Carpentersville Wednesday.
The win snapped a 4-game losing skid for Dundee-Crown (4-4). The Chargers earned it by outguarding, outrunning and outshooting Larkin (6-1) for the final quarter and a half.
"We can contend," said Dundee-Crown forward Thomas McNally, who scored the go-ahead bucket on a fastbreak with 4:25 left. "We can keep up with the better teams. We had a rough stretch of a couple of games, but we dug in and got the win."
It was the first victory for the Chargers since the day after Thanksgiving. They had since lost to quality competition: Huntley, St. Patrick, Fremd and Stevenson.
"It was just kind of nice to get the monkey off your back," Huber said. "The longer you go, and I don't care who you play, you can't tell everybody you've played great teams, you've played great teams. I mean, that only goes so far. You need a win to have (the players) kind of believe in what you're doing. We got one tonight."
Larkin had been in control most of the game. They Royals jumped to a 7-0 lead, led 18-11 after a quarter and 35-27 at the half.
Dundee-Crown used a 7-0 surge at the outset of the third quarter to draw within 37-34, but the Royals responded with a 15-4 run, ignited by Ian Fluhler's 3-pointer and fueled by a pair of Quentin Ruff 3-pointers.
Ruff turned in a remarkable shooting performance. He canned all 7 shots he attempted, including five 3-pointers, to lead all scorers with 19 points.
Larkin took its biggest lead of the game, 52-38, on a baseline leaner by sophomore forward Drew Jones (12 points) with 2:50 remaining in the third quarter.
Sensing a fifth straight loss, the Chargers turned up the intensity on both ends and outscored Larkin 28-9 to close the game. They forced 11 Larkin turnovers in the second half after forcing only 3 in the first half. Those turnovers resulted in more easy looks in transition, which partly explains why D-C shot 16 of 25 in the second half (64 percent) compared to 8 of 26 in the first half (30.8).
"I think it was us just being a little too aggressive with the ball and trying to make plays when plays weren't there," Larkin coach Deryn Carter said of the turnovers. "That's all part of learning and getting better"
Dundee-Crown defenders kept closer tabs on Larkin's shooters in transition down the stretch.
"That's what they were really getting us on in the first half," D-C guard Will Stupar said. "We did a better job of that in the second half, and we made their post players try to beat us."
The Chargers made 7 of 8 shots in the fourth quarter and 9 of their last 10 overall. Junior forward Dylan Kissack was 1 of 10 from the field until he sank his final 2 attempts to finish with 8 points. His final basket tied the game 52-52 with 6:49 to play.
"After losing 4 in a row we were really determined to not let this one slip away," Kissack said. "It was just determination overall."
Brandon Rodriguez gave the Chargers their first lead with a 3-pointer with 5:34 to play, but Larkin's Derrick Streety put his team back on top with a baseline drive for a layup with 4:51 left.
Off another turnover, Cordero Parson fed McNally for the go-ahead bucket in transition, which gave D-C a 59-58 lead with 4:25 to play. Another Larkin miscue led to a transition jumper by Stupar. A three-point play by Brandon Gordon on a putback gave the Chargers a 64-58 advantage with 2:46 remaining.
Larkin pulled within 64-61 on Ruff's final 3-pointer, but Quantice Hunter (12 points) and Streety (6 points) each missed 3-point attempts on the next Larkin possession.
D-C sealed the game when they twice grabbed offensive rebounds of missed free throws by Rodriguez (13 points) and Parson (12 points). Dundee-Crown next plays at the Elgin Tournament against Hoffman Estates Monday.
Larkin will face Harlan at the Elgin Tournament Monday but first faces a road test at Batavia Friday. The Royals hope to make some improvements in the interim, particularly on defense.
"The last quarter and a half they played harder than we did," Carter said. "And they played smarter. You can't beat people when you're giving layups up. It's not that we gave them layups, but they were good enough to go around us. We have to be better defensively. We didn't rotate.
"Hats off to them. We were right there. We thought we had them on the ropes. They responded and got a win."