Huntley turns away Larkin
For three quarters Friday night, the Huntley boys basketball dictated the pace and was in control.
Larkin picked up the pace by going to a full-court press in the fourth quarter and was able to erase the 9-point deficit it faced heading into the quarter.
But the Red Raiders did just enough to earn a 46-42 victory and claim the Class 4A Huntley regional championship.
“I think some of our guys got tired and made some poor decisions,” said Huntley coach Marty Manning, who watched his team turn the ball over 10 times in the final quarter. “They are a really good pressing team.”
Huntley (26-3) won its fourth regional in six seasons and will play Rockford Auburn (28-2), which beat Hononegah on Friday night to win its own regional, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in a Dundee-Crown sectional semifinal.
“It means more that it was at home,” Huntley senior Justin Frederick said of the regional title. “Larkin and DeKalb and everyone else in this regional were excellent. We’re glad we earned our way to it.”
Manning expects to see a lot of pressure in against Auburn. He has to hope his team handles it better than it did against the Royals (16-12).
Huntley played its typical game in the first three quarters, being patient on offense and forcing its opponent to work for everything offensively. A 7-0 run midway through the third quarter gave the Red Raiders a 34-23 lead. The lead was 36-27 heading into the fourth quarter.
Larkin went to a full-court press to open the fourth quarter, forced Huntley into 3 turnovers in the first 45 seconds and got within 6, 36-30, 48 seconds into the quarter. Another Huntley turnover led to an easy layup from Larkin’s Quentin Ruff to make it a 4-point game, 38-34, with 6:15 remaining. The lead was still four until back-to-back Red Raiders turnovers led to consecutive layups from Ruff to tie the game, 41-41, with 4:03 left.
“The intention was to trap as soon as they catch it,” Ruff said of the press. “It started to work and we got a lot of easy layups off it.”
Huntley’s Bryce Only answered with a floater in the lane to give Huntley a 43-41 lead with 3:49 left. The Red Raiders hit 3 of 6 free throws in the final 3:25, including Troy Miller hitting 1 of 2 with 3.4 seconds left, to hang on as the Royals only got a free throw from Kendale McCullum in the final four minutes.
The Royals had two opportunities to tie the game in the final 30 seconds, but Quantice Hunter and Ruff missed long 3-pointers as Huntley would not allow an open look.
“We talked about it for the last 2½ weeks, just because it’s a three-point game doesn’t mean with need a three,” Royals coach Deryn Carter said. “I think just because of the pressure of the situation we kind of forced some jump shots. It’s only because guys were trying to get us back. Unfortunately none of them fell.”
Only led Huntley with 13 points. Amanze Egekeze added 11 points and 7 rebounds. Frederick had 7 points and 10 rebounds.
Ruff had 14 points, 9 in the fourth quarter to lead Larkin. Hunter added 9, hitting 3 3-pointers. This was Larkin’s first regional title game appearance since 2006.