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Larkin pushes Whitney Young to limit before falling

ROCKFORD - The Guilford High School gymnasium became a land of lost opportunity for the Larkin boys basketball team Friday afternoon.

The Royals went toe-to-toe with defending Class 4A state champion Whitney Young for 32 minutes but in the end, missed free throws, a couple of missed shots and an untimely turnover cost Larkin in a 70-64 loss to the talented Dolphins in the Tip-Off Classic.

"Win or lose we told our guys we've got bigger goals than winning one Thanksgiving tournament game," said Larkin coach Deryn Carter. "We wanted to be a better team leaving the locker room."

For the most part the Royals (2-1), who came back to beat Rockford East 69-61 in their second game of the day, can say they came away with more positives than negatives against Young, even though the scoreboard didn't say so at the end.

Trailing 24-12 early in the second quarter, junior Pierre Black and senior Anthony Lynch ignited a 12-0 Larkin run that tied the game at 24 with 4:15 left in the first half. Black hit two of his six 3-pointers in that stretch and Lynch added 6 points to forge the tie.

But Young (4-0) finished the half on a 12-6 run that gave the Dolphins a 36-30 lead at the break.

"We were on the ropes there in the first half," Carter said. "We talked about playing in big games against big teams. We showed we can take the punch."

Young, which returns three starters from its state title team, extended its lead to 45-36 in the first three minutes of the third quarter but again Larkin took the punch and punched back.

Senior Jalen Shaw scored in the paint, junior Victor Perez hit a 3-pointer, Black nailed a trey and Lynch took a feed from Shaw to bury a runner in the lane and suddenly the Royals, who finished 22 of 48 from the field after shooting just 9-for-26 in the first half, led 46-45 with 2:29 to play in the third. Senior Javon Freeman quickly put Young back ahead 16 seconds later and Shaw made 1 of 2 free throws at the 2:05 mark to tie it at 47. But then the Dolphins went on an 8-0 spurt to take a 55-47 lead into the fourth.

Larkin's demise in the third quarter was 1 of 6 free throw shooting.

"Some of the free throw issues, I think, were fatigue," Carter said. "Shaw played a lot of minutes in that game. They're trying to make them - maybe a little more mental concentration."

The Royals wouldn't go away in the final quarter, though. They chipped away at the lead and trailed 67-62 after 2 free throws from Shaw with 1:59 to play. Young turned the ball over on the next possession but Larkin missed two shots in the paint. The Royals again got the ball back when Young missed the front end of a one-and one but Larkin turned the ball over with 1:06 left then failed to grab a rebound when Young missed from the line again.

Those missed opportunities allowed the clock to run down and Young made 3 of 4 free throws in the final 50 seconds to hold on for the win.

"I looked up with about 1:20 to go and we were down five and had the ball," Carter said. "Maybe if we score there ..."

Shaw, who scored only 6 points in the first half, ended with a game-high 21 to go along with 19 rebounds as the Royals owned a monstrous 40-19 advantage on the boards. Black added 19 points and Lynch had 16.

Freeman led Young with 19 points and Myles Baker added 14 while Keenan Jones had 12.

In the win over Rockford East Lynch had 25 points to lead the Royals. Shaw added another double-double with 13 points and 15 rebounds while Black added 14 points.

Larkin will conclude play in the tournament at 1 p.m. Saturday at Rockford Jefferson against the host school.

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