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Larkin hangs tough before Auburn pulls away

DeKALB - The Larkin boys basketball season came to an end Tuesday, but the one thing the Royals never did against the highly regarded Rockford Auburn was quit.

The 64-49 victory for Auburn that advanced the Knights to the Class 4A DeKalb sectional final Friday may not be indicative of how tough it was for the Knights to pry this one away from Larkin.

Auburn (29-1), which beat Larkin 82-54 earlier this season, saw its 16-point second quarter lead trimmed to 10 at the half. And if it wasn't for a temperature-rising sequence on a hard foul to Charles Sanders with 3:54 left in the third, the Royals would have never built an 8-point lead on a 17-0 run in the late stages of the third quarter.

But Auburn learned how to play through adversity and turned the tables, countering with a 19-2 run to start the fourth and that did in Larkin, which finished the season 20-9.

"They started that fourth quarter with a 6-0 run, I thought it changed the complexion of the game," said Larkin coach Deryn Carter, whose team was blitzed with a 1-2-2 zone trap in that sequence. "I'm proud of my guys. The finality of it hurts. We've improved so much. It's going to be hard going to work tomorrow."

AJ Hunter led the Royals with 11 points while Sanders had 10 points to go with his 6 rebounds and 2 steals. But the two 3-pointers each by Tanner Gardon and Keyvon Kyles (each had 7 points) in the third quarter, when Larkin completely tore up the script, the Royals into a 41-33 lead with 1:00 to go in the third quarter. The run started on a left-wing 3 by Kyles to cut Auburn's lead to 6 with 4:20 left. On the next Larkin possession, Sanders drove to the hoop and was fouled hard by Antoine Pittman.

Larkin's Daniel McFadden took exception; both he and Pittman had to be separated, delaying the game for nearly five minutes. After that, technical fouls were handed out to both players and both benches. But the emotions from it only seemed to invigorate Larkin, which rattled off 14-straight points.

"When Daniel got emotional, it just made us all come together, it didn't break us apart. You got our back, we got your back, we're going to fight for you like you just fought for us, that's what we came out and did and that's how we got that run. It just sparked it," Kyles said. "It was something that was unexplainable, the energy was just radiating off each other . . . I can't even explain it."

It all looked good for the Royals, who nursed a 43-37 lead with 7:30 remaining on Hunter's layup. But then Larkin went ice cold - and Laytwan Porter came alive. He drained a 3 to cut the Larkin lead to 3 with 7:15 left in the fourth. Then he dished it off to Pittman, who converted on a drive to cut the lead to 1. Auburn took the lead thereafter, and outscored the Royals 28-8 in the fourth.

"I didn't see us getting into that melee with the technical foul stuff, going back and forth," Knights coach Bryan Ott said. "I thought we lost our cool a little bit, thought that was uncharacteristic. But what is characteristic about our guys is just continuing to play our game. I'm particularly proud of how we weathered that storm and didn't change our brand of basketball. I tip my hat to Larkin."

Delundre Dixon led all scorers with 15, Porter chipped in 14 and Nylek Cobb had 13, as the Knights scored 23 points off 20 Larkin turnovers.

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