Larkin's Kyles hits for school-record 36 in win over Streamwood
Just call it a case of TMM for the Streamwood girls basketball team Tuesday night.
As in Too Much Marlee.
Larkin junior Marlee Kyles lit up the Streamwood gym for a school record 36 points, leading the Royals to a 61-41 win in the opening round of the Class 4A Streamwood regional.
The Royals (9-19), who snapped a 7-game losing streak, will play South Elgin in the 6 p.m. semifinal on Thursday.
"Phenomenal," said Larkin coach Steve Knapp. "Her presence on the court is unbelievable. She can do everything. She can handle the ball, shoot it, shoot free throws, pass it ... she was on all four cylinders tonight."
Oh, by the way, Kyles didn't start the game (coach's decision). She came in midway through the first quarter with Streamwood leading 8-2. By the end of the quarter she had scored 8 points to give Larkin a 10-9 lead and her career-best night was just getting started. Before it was over, Kyles made 10 of 22 shots from the floor, including two 3-pointers, and 14 of 15 from the free-throw line while also dishing out 6 assists. The Royals led 25-16 at halftime and bolted out to a 36-19 lead midway through the third quarter. The Sabres didn't get closer than 13 the rest of the way.
"It was just the fact that I'm playing with a great group of seniors and I didn't want it to be their last game," said Kyles, who has offers from Weber State and Boston University as well as serious interest from Syracuse, Marquette, Indiana and Mississippi.
"I just wanted to do whatever I could for us to win."
Kyles broke her career high with 1:16 to play in the game on a putback of her own miss, was fouled and made the free throw to break the school record which was held by Corry (Carter) Irvin, now the head coach at Illinois powerhouse Whitney Young. Ironically, Kyles plays for the Mac Irvin Fire AAU program, run by Corry's husband.
Kyles also now has 1,286 career points, No. 2 in program history behind Kiley Holtz's 1,405.
"The ballgame was we didn't stop her," said Streamwood coach George Rosner, whose team finished the season 6-22. "Marlee had free reign and their other people stepped up. They had a good game plan."
That included shutting down 6-foot-3 Streamwood junior Jenejah Williams, who was held to 10 points and just 1 in the first half, when she was also saddled with foul trouble.
"We knew at halftime when it was Marlee 17, J 1 and J had three fouls that it was going to be an uphill battle," Rosner said.
Sarah El Rahmany, Haley Bohne and Shawniece Colen Douglas each added 7 points for Larkin, while Monica Brown led Streamwood with 12 and Maddie Exline added 10.