Harvest Christian's Iverson joins 1,000 club
Any suspense regarding Saturday's Elgin City Classic finale between the Harvest Christian and Westminster Christian girls basketball teams ended with the first quarter.
It was not the outcome of the game that was in suspense - it was evident that Harvest, scoring the first 11 points of the contest, was on its way to a victory.
Harvest junior Alyssa Iverson started the game 10 points shy of the 1,000-point mark for her high school career. The junior scored all the points she needed in the first quarter, getting the last 3 on a trey from the right wing just as the period ended.
The host Lions, behind Iverson's game-high 22 points, overwhelmed the Warriors, 62-22 to win and capture the tournament title for the third year in a row.
"Alyssa has probably had the best work ethic of her three years here at Harvest and she's bringing it to the game," said Harvest coach Rich DeTamble. "Kylie Knox and Pauline Castro are the gold standard in Harvest girls basketball. Alyssa is going to be right there with them next year if she continues to put in the off-season work in that those two ladies did."
Knox is Harvest's all time girls scoring leader with 1,550 points, according to DeTamble. Castro is second with 1,260.
"I knew I needed 3 more points so I just went for it," Iverson said. "It's something a lot of people work hard for so I was excited to get it."
Freshman Maddy Martin scored 12 for Harvest (16-3) while teammate Isamar Garcia notched 10 points.
Elise VanNoord scored 8 for Westminster (4-16).
Elgin 40, Larkin 34: Larkin continues to struggle without Marlee Kyles, the Royals' all-time leading scorer for both girls and boys players. Larkin dropped Saturday's opening Elgin City Classic game to rival Elgin, 40-34. The senior was sidelined last week with a concussion.
Larkin (9-11) led 10-6 after the first quarter, but only managed 4 points in the second frame to trail the Maroons 19-14 at the half.
The Royals rallied in the third quarter. An Aaliyah Dixon (14 points) jumper with 1:43 left in the period put Larkin back on top, 30-29. Maroon Kylie Graves (13 points) then connected on 3 of 4 free throws to put her team up, 32-30 at the end of the quarter.
Larkin pulled with one, 34-33 on a Haley Bohne (10 points) layup with less than four minutes to play.
The Royals were only able to score one more point as the Maroons slowed down the game's tempo to run off the clock.
"It's officially a winning streak, two in a row," said Elgin coach Dr. Nick Bumbales."I thought we played a little bit better defense today than we have been. We got into the passing lanes. Offensively, we took advantage of the matchups we had."
"With Marlee being out, it a difficult situation for them," Bumbales said. "Four games in four days - it's just tough."
Sophomore Kamiya Harvey scored 8 points for Elgin (5-15), including two 3-pointers.