No drop-off for Larkin in win over West Chicago
Larkin boys basketball coach Deryn Carter was concerned going into Saturday's game at West Chicago that his Royals would get caught up in all the hoopla surrounding Friday's blowout win over archrival Elgin.
As it turned out, Carter's pregame warning wasn't a prelude to anything bigger, as Larkin carried the momentum over and buried three 3-pointers in the game's first 1:44, eventually turning back West Chicago 62-42 in Upstate Eight Conference River Division action.
Junior guard A.J. Hunter, who received his first start of the season, scored a game-high 17 points and helped Larkin (6-3, 3-1) jump out to an 11-2 lead with his right corner 3-pointer in a sequence that saw Keyvon Kyles and Tanner Gardon also knock down jumpers from deep. Hunter's 14 second-quarter points then prevented West Chicago from getting back into the game.
The Royals, who after losing 2 straight have won 2 straight, also had the inside-outside game going thanks to 6-foot-5 Daniel McFadden, as the junior really blew it open in the third with 10 of his 16 points, all in the paint. McFadden hauled in 12 rebounds, which included 6 on the offensive glass and had 8 second-chance points.
Hunter and McFadden also helped Larkin extend its lead to 13 on two separate occasions in the first half and McFadden's final hoop with 1:45 left in the third made it an 18-point lead. Larkin's biggest lead reached 23 during a stretch in the fourth.
"Great teams or good teams, they don't have those drop-offs, they have to create their own energy and I'm very proud of where we're at today than we were two Saturdays ago," Carter said. "The good thing was that it just so happened to be A.J. and Daniel (Saturday). But as guys learn their roles better and get aggressive, we've got a lot of guys that can hurt people on any given night."
The Wildcats (2-4, 2-2), who lost to Geneva on Friday, cut the deficit to 5 on a 12-5 run bridging the first and second quarters, but Hunter (6-for-12 shooting, 3-for-8 from 3-point range) knocked down 5 shots in the second, including two 3s and a running floater at the buzzer as Larkin ended the half on an 8-0 run for a 33-20 lead.
"I'm not trying to be a selfish person but I had to step up because I'm originally not even a starter," Hunter said. "I felt like I had to step up and show coach I'm capable of starting in that role in the long run and step in for my team."
West Chicago's Devonte Pascal led the Wildcats with 9 points and 7 rebounds while Tai Bibbs chipped in 7 points. But a 3-for-17 shooting display in the first quarter and a 28.8 percent clip overall added to the fact Larkin out-hustled the Wildcats in every category made it hard on the Wildcats to get into any flow at all.
"It seemed like it took us two or three minutes to realize that we had a ballgame going tonight," West Chicago coach Bill Recchia said. "And you can't start off slow against a team like that. They were quicker to every loose ball, every offensive rebound, every deflection. They were quicker to the ball."
Larkin edged West Chicago on the boards 46-33, which included 18 on the offensive glass. Sophomore Christian Negron corralled 12 alone to go with his 4 points and 4 assists but McFadden was clearly too big, too fast and too strong.
McFadden had an array of post moves going in the third - a hook, a fade and a putback. He scored 10 straight in a 4:16 span of the third quarter.
"At that point I was in a rhythm, trying to get to the basket, I knew I had a man on my back who really couldn't stay with me at that point so I just tried to go to the basket," said McFadden, who helped Larkin score 38 points in the paint. "We knew we had the better bigs so we just worked down low in the third quarter."