Larkin wins 14th straight over Elgin
Larkin's 51-43 victory over rival Elgin at Chesbrough Field House on Tuesday won't be remembered as one of the great games in series history, but the Royals will take it.
Larkin won a record 14th straight game over its crosstown rival despite committing 22 turnovers and shooting 33 percent from the field (17 of 51).
The Royals were led by 6-foot-10 senior Jalen Shaw, who finished with 15 points, 15 rebounds and 7 blocks.
"The list probably starts and ends with him," Larkin coach Deryn Carter said of Royals who played well. "I have to do a better job of getting guys prepared because we're just not playing very well. I'm very disappointed. As a coaching staff, whether it's lineup adjustments, whether it's practice changes, whether it's scout stuff - it's just not good enough."
The Royals built a 7-point halftime lead despite their issues and extended it to 44-28 through three quarters because Elgin shot even worse. The Maroons made only 8 of 39 shots through the first three quarters (20.5 percent) and 14 of 57 for the game (24.5 percent).
Still, it was a better effort overall by the Maroons than in last Friday's 64-38 loss to Batavia
"We battled," said Elgin coach Mike Sitter, whose team slipped to 1-4 overall, 0-2 in the Upstate Eight River. "We didn't battle last Friday night against Batavia. In practice all we talked about was effort: leave it all out on the floor. You should be limping, you should be sore when you leave the gym and they are. The kids who played a lot are sore and beat up. That's a physical team and we battled them and we played as physical as they were so I'm happy with that. We just couldn't hit water if we fell out of a boat."
Shaw had a lot to do with Elgin's shooting woes. The intimidating shot blocker altered as many attempts as he actually blocked. However, he knows his team must clean up its mistakes against the UEC River's elite teams.
"We have to stop turning over the ball and we have to stop getting in foul trouble," Shaw said. "I mean, we're super competitive in practice but we take it overboard and it goes over to the game."
Xavier Bonds had 10 points, Dan Toolsie and Tre Morris each scored 8 points and John Fortmann finsihed with 7 points for Elgin.
Anthony Lynch scored 13 points and Pierre Black and Isiah Talley each contributed 7 points for Larkin.
Both teams return to UEC River action on Friday at 7 p.m. Larkin visits St. Charles East (4-2, 0-1) while Elgin hosts Geneva (5-1, 1-0).