South Elgin avoids Larkin upset bid despite Kyles' 31
South Elgin may have lost a battle Thursday night but the Storm won the war.
Unable to contain Larkin junior standout Marlee Kyles for the better part of the night, the top-seeded Storm faced early elimination from the Class 4A Streamwood girls basketball regional, but in the end No. 8 seed Larkin's inability to rebound missed South Elgin free throws played a bigger role than Kyles' 31 points as the Storm rallied to come away with a 49-36 semifinal win.
South Elgin (20-8), which tied the program record for wins in a season, will take on No. 5 seed Dundee-Crown at 7 p.m. Friday for the regional title and a trip to next week's DeKalb sectional. South Elgin is seeking its second regional crown in the last 3 years and third in program history. D-C, which won a regional last year, defeated Grant 46-43 in Thursday's second semifinal.
"We were ripe for an upset," said second-year Storm coach Dan Mandernack. "With both of our best shooters (Teagan Pompa and Emmy McIntosh) out injured, (Larkin) just sat in that zone and we needed to make some 3s.
"We had no answer for Marlee. Her initials might be MK but she plays like MJ. We tried everything on her and nothing worked."
Kyles, who finished shooting 10-for-22 including 5 of 8 from 3-point range was on fire in the first half, scoring 20 of her points as the Royals (9-20) held as much as an 11-point lead at 27-16 with 2:51 left in the second quarter. But South Elgin gained some momentum with a 6-0 run to end the half and then never let Larkin establish more than a 5-point lead in the second half before making its comeback.
"They slowed us down in the last couple minutes (of the first half)," said Larkin coach Steve Knapp. "We stopped being aggressive and it worked for them. They had some momentum going into the second half."
Larkin grabbed a 42-37 lead with 6:16 left in the game when Kyles, who scored a school record 36 points Tuesday against Streamwood, hit the last of her five 3-pointers on the night. But 2 free throws from senior Nadia Yang, a basket by senior Bridgette Williams and another bucket from Yang gave the Storm its first lead since early in the first quarter at 43-42 with 4:26 to play. A Kyles basket put Larkin back on top but Mackie Kelleher's turnaround in the lane at 3:59 put South Elgin ahead to stay. The Storm missed 6 free throws down the stretch but on two of those occasions Larkin failed to get the rebound. Yang made 2 free throws with 14.3 seconds to go and Larkin missed two 3-point attempts in the final 4.9 seconds, which allowed the Storm to survive.
"Not getting a couple of rebounds really hurt us," said Knapp, who was pleased with the progress his team made in his first season at the helm. "I wish I had these seniors for another month. We really started turning the corner the last couple weeks. Moving forward with the juniors we have coming back and (sophomore) Haley Bohne, next year is going to be a good year."
Kelleher led the Storm with 17 points, while Williams (7 rebounds) added 13 and Yang 12.
"We knew coming out we had to focus on Marlee and she played a great game," Williams said. "We just kept our spirit alive and we were able to come out on top."