Scott, Saints down Larkin 63-50
All season long, St. Charles East boys basketball coach Brian Clodi has been waiting for Zach Scott to have his breakout game.
Larkin wishes he'd waited an extra night.
Scott, a 3-year varsity player for the Saints, shut down Larkin point guard Jeff Saurbaugh on defense and scored 15 points on offense as East downed Larkin 63-50 in Elgin Friday night in Upstate Eight Conference action.
"We've been asking him to be a leader," Clodi said. "Zach played an almost perfect game for us. He drew the matchup (against Saurbaugh) and we told him we didn't want to help all night. he just took him out."
Scott's defense helped the Saints (4-14, 2-5) force 14 turnovers and hold the Royals to 34 percent (18 of 52) from the floor. Larkin was held to just 10 points in each of the first 3 quarters and went 5 of 24 from beyond the 3-point line.
"I knew (Saurbaugh) was a go-to guy," Scott said. "He liked to go to the basket. I did whatever I could to stop him from going to the basket."
Saurbaugh finished with 8 of his 12 points in the fourth quarter, but scored just a single basket by driving the lane.
While Scott's game was almost perfect, East center Kevin Senechalle was perfect in the first quarter. The senior went 6-of-6 from the floor and scored 12 points as East jumped out to a 19-10 lead after the first quarter. The 6-foot 7-inch center lead all scorers with 27 points and 11 rebounds, but his early efforts paced the Saints. Behind Senechalle, East went 9-of-16 from the floor in the first quarter. Larkin (6-12, 1-4) never got within 8 points for the rest of the night.
"We worked all week on that," Larkin coach Larry Hight said of defending Senechalle. "We had all week to prepare for that. We drilled it and drilled it. We knew what we had to do and we didn't do it."
It didn't help that 6-foot, 3-inch Terell John was guarding the towering Senechalle either. Although, Senechalle did go 5-of-11 from the floor after the first period, but East found other ways to score.
"We really didn't stop him," said Larkin guard Drew Simonini, who led the Royals with 16 points. "We should have been more physical. It was frustrating. he was so strong he would (draw a foul)."
Despite going 6-of-17 in the second half, the Saints scored 30 points, fueled by outstanding free-throw shooting in the fourth quarter.
Larkin brought the game to within 9 points 4 times in the fourth quarter and each time East answered by drawing a foul and making free throws. Phil Kohlhagen went 6-of-6, Senechalle was 3-of-4 and Scott made a pair from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter as East scored 19 points, but not a field goal for 5 minutes, 31 seconds.