Energetic Larkin rolls over Elgin
Larkin boys basketball coach Deryn Carter and his team walked out of their gym last Saturday night not with a win, but having learned some things about themselves.
Friday night, the Royals put those lessons to good use.
Employing a stifling defense and getting balanced scoring, Larkin dismantled crosstown rival Elgin, 69-34, in front of a crowd of over 1,500 on Elgin's west side.
The score is the largest margin of victory in the city rivalry since at least 1990.
"We came out of last Saturday night and we knew we either wanted to show something or show we grew up," said Carter. "I think the answer to that is that, for tonight anyway, we grew up."
Carter was referring to the Royals' 71-58 loss to defending Class 3A champion Morgan Park in the Mac Irvin Diabetes Classic. It was Larkin's second straight loss as the defending Upstate Eight River champs also fell to St. Charles East last weekend.
But on this night, Larkin used the energy of its huge crowd to fuel the intensity and Elgin had no answer.
"The environment sets the tone," said Carter, whose team moved to 5-3 overall and 2-1 in the River. "If you can't get up for this rivalry you should be somewhere else doing something else."
The Royals forced Elgin (2-5, 1-2) into 27 turnovers and Larkin scored 30 points off those miscues. Senior Charles Sanders had 5 of the Royals' 13 steals.
"We're a defensive team. That's what we like to do," said Sanders, who scored 8 points and had 7 rebounds.
The Maroons were without leading scorer Desmond Douglas, who was academically ineligible according to coach Mike Sitter, but they hung with the Royals early on, trailing just 12-11 with 1:07 left in the first quarter after a basket by junior Dijawon Bonds.
But then Larkin turned on the defensive jets and took over the game. The Royals scored twice off turnovers in the final 33 seconds of the first quarter and then, leading 18-13, went on a 13-0 run to take a 31-13 advantage with 3:35 left in the half. Senior Dundee-Crown transfer Juwan Stewart scored 9 of his game-high 13 points, 4 of them off turnovers, in just over a minute.
"I'm feeling really comfortable," said Stewart of his second stint as a Royal. "I was here before so nothing's really changed. I just let the ball come to me and didn't demand the ball. I was just in the right spot."
Larkin led 36-19 at halftime and then scored the first 14 points of the second half to take an insurmountable 50-19 lead. Larkin shot 48 percent for the night (28 of 58) but was hitting at a 57.5 percent clip (23 of 40) through three quarters. The Royals also outrebounded Elgin 42-28.
"We found some new energy when we played Morgan Park and we just wanted to keep that energy," said Royals' 6-foot-6 sophomore Christian Negron, who had two monster slam dunks in scoring 12 points while also grabbing 8 rebounds.
Junior D'Montrelle Mardis added 10 points off the bench for Larkin, which had 11 players score in the game.
"All 12-13 guys who played did what they needed to do tonight," Carter said.
The Maroons were led by 11 points from junior Lavion Baldwin. Elgin made just 11 of 39 shots (28 percent).
"We treat the basketball like it's Ebola. No one wants to touch it," said Sitter. "We started rushing things. It's all about playing within yourselves and we had guys who didn't do that tonight. It was intense at first but as soon as Larkin got a couple steals we started hanging our heads."