Downers North boxes out Larkin
The Larkin boys basketball team will almost always be the smaller team on the floor.
The Royals have to outwork and box out for rebounds. They had a difficult time doing that Tuesday night.
Downers Grove North outrebounded Larkin by 19 en route to a 53-48 nonconference victory in Elgin.
"(Today) we're going to have boxing out practice," Royals coach Larry Hight said. "That weakness will lose you ballgames."
Larkin (3-3) grabbed 12 rebounds in the first quarter, compared to 5 for the Trojans, and held a 13-10 lead. The Royals increased the lead to 7, 19-12, with 4:35 left in the first half after a Ramadon Adili 3-pointer. Those would be the last points of the half for Larkin.
DGN (3-3) scored the final 8 points of the second quarter, including a buzzer-beating basket from Greg Petty, to take a 20-19 advantage into halftime. The Trojans outrebounded the Royals, 13-3, in the second quarter.
"We've been outrebounded by a margin of about six in our first five games," Trojans coach Jim Thomas said. "Saturday and Monday we had a lot of drills dedicated to rebounding, being physical and pushing guys out. It worked tonight."
The Trojans increased their lead to 7, 34-27, after a Pete Johnson 3-pointer with 2 minutes left in the third quarter. The Royals, despite being outrebounded 13-4 in the third, cut the deficit to 1, 36-35, before a Scott Raap offensive rebound and putback as time expired for a DGN 38-35 lead.
"We let ourselves get pushed around," said the Royals' Ryan Smith, who scored a team-high 10 points.
Larkin regained the lead, 43-41, with 5:19 remaining in the game on a Terell John off-balance basket in the paint. Nick LeBeau hit a 3-pointer with 4 minutes left as the Trojans took the lead for good, 44-43.
The Royals had a chance to send the game to overtime, getting the ball back with 20 seconds left and trailing by 3, 51-48. But Jeff Saurbaugh was forced to throw up a 3-pointer that was not good and Kameron Norton hit 2 free throws to ice the game with 2.3 seconds left.
Mark Perales led DGN with 19 points. Norton, a 6-foot-6 senior, finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds as the Trojans outrebounded the Royals, 44-25.
Saurbaugh, John, Adili and Drew Simonini each had 8 points for Larkin. John, who is 6-3, led the Royals with 7 rebounds.
"The rebounds don't bother me as much as the boxing out," Hight said. "We are an undersized team. We've got to be able to box out."