Kyles, Washington lead Larkin's win

Larkin's season opener turned into a coming-out party for Marlee Kyles.

The sophomore guard scored 31 points as the Royals downed Marengo, 71-54, in the Burlington Central Thanksgiving tournament Tuesday night.

Kyles scored 21 in the first half as Larkin opened up a 45-33 lead. Quixmia Washington had a pretty good game in her own right, scoring 25 points.

Both teams ran the floor regularly, leading to some sloppy sequences in the season opener. Larkin coach Ruben Flores wasn't about to complain about the scoring explosion, but would have liked to seen the Royals run the offense a bit more.

"At times the offense clicked, but a lot of it was off the turnovers," he said. "Marlee was just fantastic. Q's coming on strong. I would have loved to see us get into our offense a little bit more, but at the end of the day it's a W and we'll go ahead and take that."

Kyles also pulled down 11 rebounds. Shawniece Colen-Douglas grabbed 10 boards leading the Royals to a big advantage on the glass.

Larkin took control of the game at the beginning of each half. The Royals raced out to a 7-0 advantage as the Indians turned it over on their first 4 possessions. Larkin put the game away with a 14-0 run to start the second half. Washington started the spurt with two coast-to-coast drives and Kyles then added 6 straight points.

"We came out with great intensity and things just started clicking," Kyles said.

But she doesn't necessarily want to put up 31 every night.

"I do like assists," she said. "I want to get my teammates involved and have them score."

Kaila Rondorf scored 15 points for Marengo, but was the only Indian in double figures.

The Royals, who play Harlem on Friday, shot 41 percent from the field and 50 percent from the free-throw line in each half.