Colorful effort from Negron, Larkin at Barrington

Christian Negron and Larkin painted Barrington 63-56 Tuesday in a game where hoops fans were missing a matchup that never took place.

The 6-foot-7 Negron scored 18 points, had 12 rebounds and blocked 6 shots. And he had many hoopsters wishing they could have seen the junior match up against Barrington's Rapolas Ivanauskas, who transferred to a prep school out East before the school year began.

But Negron, who has offers from Illinois, Iowa, DePaul and Bradley, had those observers feeling that his game is further along at this point in his career than Ivanauskas was a year ago.

"He is a high major basketball player," Larkin coach Deryn Carter said. "And he showed that tonight in all facets - offense, defense and rebounding."

Negron was a force on the defensive end for the Royals, especially at the start of the second half and Larkin leading 36-31. With Negron looming large, Barrington missed 5 shots and turned the ball over 3 times, all inside the paint.

"I am the last line of defense and that is my job," said Negron, who had 3 blocked shots during that span and changed the trajectory of the two other misses. "Our guards do a great job of pressuring them up top. But sometimes they slip through. I just try to be really active down there. Larkin prides itself on our defense."

Carter said that is what he expects out of Negron.

"That is what a high major player does," Carter said. "He has his footprint on the game."

With Negron holding Barrington at bay, Larkin (8-6) was able to score 7 unanswered points to open up a 43-31 lead with 4:50 left in the third. The lead was double digits until just over a minute left to play when Barrington made a late run.

"This is a tough place to play," Carter said. "I am proud of our guys. We had a total team effort and that is something we needed to get off to a good start in the second half of the season."

Larkin was coming off a disappointing 1-2 finish at the Proviso West tournament. But that didn't deter them from turning things around right away.

The Royals came out running to start the game Tuesday. Led by Keyvon Kyles, who scored 10 of his 13 points in the first quarter, Larkin jumped out to a 24-17 advantage.

"We like to play fast this year," said Kyles, who is a three-year starter. "We definitely focus on pushing the ball up and getting them tired."

Barrington (9-7), which finished third at the Jacobs tournament and does not begin school until Thursday after the holiday break, finally got its game back in gear in the second quarter.

The Broncos pulled to 28-27 on a rebound basket by Ethan Small with 3:23 left in the first half. But that was as close as Barrington would be all night.

"They are pretty athletic and it took us some time to adjust," Barrington coach Bryan Tucker said. "We only got 6 points in the third quarter and that hurt us. But the kids battled hard and I am proud of them for that."

AJ Hunter had 12 points for Larkin while Keion Adams came off the bench to score 8 points.

Ben Weber and sophomore guard Anthony Spann each had 11 points to lead Barrington. Small chipped in 10 points and 8 rebounds while Jackson Perkins had 8 points and Brett Budzak had 7 points.