Rockford Auburn denies Larkin tourney title
ROCKFORD — It wasn't Rockford Auburn's two Division I signees who hurt Larkin, it was the “other guys.”
The Royals and Knights met for the championship of the inaugural 205 Tipoff Classic Saturday night and it was the host Knights who walked away with the trophy, downing the Royals, 82-54, in Dolph Stanley Gymnasium.
Auburn's two D-I recruits, Laytwan Porter (Northern Illinois) and Antoine Pittman (Wisconsin-Green Bay), were their team's fourth and fifth-leading scorers, which has to be bad news for Auburn's future opponents.
“We lost because their role-players were their top scorers,” said Larkin coach Deryn Carter.
Alonte Bjorlie led Auburn with 18 points, all on 3-pointers. Delandre Dixon scored 16. Nylek Cobb was everywhere with 15 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists. Porter and Pittman added 14 and 6, respectively.
Larkin's own D-I prospect, sophomore Christian Negron, did what he could with 24 points and 9 boards, but no other Royal scored more than 7 points.
Auburn's defense shut down the Royals' inside game, which had carried them to wins in their first 3 games of the tournament, turning Larkin into a jump-shooting team. The Knights (4-0) also forced 17 turnovers.
Larkin (3-1) trailed just 45-37 following a Negron basket late in the third quarter, but Auburn finished the quarter on an 11-2 run and wore down the visitors in the fourth quarter, outscoring them 26-15.
A.J. Hunter scored 7 points off the bench for Larkin, while Keyvon Kyles, Trevon Lindsey, and Charles Sanders scored 5 points apiece.
Earlier in the day, the Royals staged one final rally to get past Chicago Julian, 63-55, in a game that was nowhere as easy as it looked.
The Royals wasted an 18-point, third-quarter lead, allowing the Jaguars to tie the game at 54 on a free throw by Desmond Thomas with 2:13 remaining. Larkin outscored Julian 9-1 the rest of the way.
Daniel McFadden led Larkin with 18 points. Negron added 14 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists, and Tanner Gardon chipped in 11 points as the Royals' big men once again dominated in crunchtime.
Larkin appeared poised to blow the Jaguars out of the gym, leading 49-31 late in the third quarter. But Julian reeled off a 17-1 run extending well into the fourth quarter to get within 50-48. The Royals stretched the lead back to 54-50 only to watch the Jaguars tie it on a Deandre Woods 3-pointer and Thomas' free throw.
Just about anything that could go wrong for Larkin did during that long run, including missed passes, sloppy turnovers and bad bounces that always seemed to wind up in the Jaguars' hands. But the Royals never panicked.
Carter never called a timeout during the run, preferring to let the Royals play through it.
“In a lot of ways failure and pressure are the best teachers,” Carter said. “You try and coach them through that, as opposed to trying to baby them through with timeouts. Maybe later in the season if I think a game is so important that winning is more important, we'll use a timeout earlier, but right now it's all about learning.”
Carter hopes the lessons will take.
“We use that as a learning experience,” he said. “We've got to understand when you've got a team on the ropes like that the kinds of things you've got to do to put them away.”
Woods led Julian with 20 points, 12 of them coming in the fourth quarter. Rashad Grant added 16 points and 9 rebounds.