Elgin topples Larkin to nab its first win

Getting your first win of a season is always a nice feeling.

Getting it against your rival makes it special.

The Elgin girls basketball team earned its first victory of the season by beating crosstown rival Larkin, 50-31, at Chesbrough Field House.

"Our goal always is to beat our rival," Elgin senior guard Abbey Houde said. "We had a really nice (fan) turnout and that helped us out a lot."

Larkin (0-6) scored the first 4 points to take a 4-0 lead. But the Maroons (1-5) went on a 12-2 run, 8 points coming from sophomore Briana Hamilton off the bench to take 12-6 lead, a lead the Maroons never gave up.

"It was a really good experience to come in and beat them," Hamilton said. "It was fun."

Elgin led 16-10 after the first quarter and 24-19 at halftime.

Larkin trailed 25-24 with 4:11 left in the third quarter after Stacie Beaver hit a pair of free throws. The Royals had several chances to take the lead, but could not break through and failed to score until 3:03 left in the game on Corinne Wimmer's layup.

The Maroons did not hit a field-goal attempt in the third quarter, but extended their lead to 32-24 by making 8 of 14 free-throw attempts.

"(There was) a lot of fouls and that's going to slow things down," said Maroons coach Dr. Nick Bumbales, who got his first coaching victory and the game ball. "We didn't make some free throws there for a bit, then we started making them. That really started to open things up."

The Royals struggled to do anything offensively after Taitiana Holbert, who led the Royals with 13 points and 9 rebounds, fouled out with 3:40 remaining in the third quarter. They scored only 7 points the rest of the game.

"We lack bench depth, especially at the post position," Larkin coach Alphonso Lott said. "Holbert kind of fires us up."

Neither team shot the ball or protected it well. The Royals shot 24 percent (12 for 50) and committed 36 turnovers. The Maroons went 18 for 58 (31 percent) and turned the ball over 25 times.

Hamilton led the Maroons with 13 points and 9 rebounds. Brandi Hernandez added 10 points and Houde had 9.

Wimmer and Abigail Alvarez each had 6 points for the Royals.