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Larkin rallies past St. Charles East

Deryn Carter knew his Larkin team wasn't going to miss every shot it took against St. Charles East Tuesday night in Elgin, though it sure felt like it for awhile.

The Royals missed their first 12 shots of the game, falling behind 15-2 until Anthony Lynch finally got a jumper to fall six minutes into the game.

Larkin also misfired on its first 11 shots from behind the 3-point line until Pierre Black connected midway through the third quarter.

At that point the Royals trailed 26-16, but Black's 3 ignited a 25-5 run that turned the 10-point deficit into a double-digit lead on the way to a 62-45 victory that keeps No. 4 Larkin unbeaten in the Upstate Eight Conference River Division.

With No. 13 St. Charles East (5-3, 1-2) collapsing its defense around 6-foot-10 Jalen Shaw and forcing the Royals to beat them from the outside, Larkin finally got those open shots to go in the second half. After shooting just 4 for 25 in the first half, Larkin hit 12 of 22 in the second - many of them identical to the first-half looks.

"It's hard as a coach at halftime to say anything other than we're doing what we want to be doing when you have 15 points," Carter said. "The kids are waiting for you to yell or say this or that. Pierrie is missing some open shots, Vic (Perez) is missing some open shots, we just have to keep getting them. We made some shots in the second half, big difference."

Lynch, who led Larkin (6-2, 4-0) with 19 points, said outscoring the Saints 46-19 over the final 13 minutes is a credit to the team's maturity.

"We came in at halftime and knew what we needed to do," Lynch said. "We regrouped and just kept playing. We have a lot of seniors on this team and it shows a lot. We bring a lot of senior leadership."

The Saints started quickly with 6 points from Justin Hardy, then 5 from Zach Robinson and another basket from Hardy when the Saints spread the floor and Hardy beat Shaw on a drive to the rim.

That put St. Charles East up 13-1. Hardy picked up his second foul moments later and didn't play the rest of the first half, which helped the Royals stay within 21-16 at halftime - even with their 16 percent shooting.

Hardy scored to start the third quarter and Nate Ortiz knocked down an open 3 before Black's 3 got the Royals going. Shaw made a jumper, Black hit another 3-pointer, Lynch scored on a spin move and a Perez basket gave Larkin its first lead at 28-27.

Perez sank a 3 in the closing seconds of the third quarter for a 33-29 lead, and the Royals stretched it to 41-31 on Shaw's 3-point play, a trey from Black and another drive from Lynch.

"For a Tuesday in December, this was a huge win," Carter said. "That (the comeback) was a good response for sure."

Larkin senior Kindrel Morris added 15 points - on 15-of-16 shooting at the free-throw line all in the fourth quarter as the Saints fouled repeatedly in the final two minutes.

"He shot a lot of them," Carter said. "Free throw shooting has not been a huge strength of ours. Sometimes it's just about confidence and getting in a flow."

Shaw finished with 12 points and 15 rebounds while making several good passes out of double teams to open teammates.

"All I have to do is slow it down and see what I've got and that's when I make my moves," Shaw said. "I want to be a playmaker. As long as you are looking for your open teammates and move the ball, you'll be a better basketball team."

Hardy scored a game-high 21 points and Robinson had 16 points and 8 rebounds, but the rest of the Saints combined for 8 points. They also turned the ball over 20 times and were outrebounded 33-30.

"We have to get better," Saints coach Patrick Woods said. "Larkin took us out of what we want to do which is play fast. They were very patient offensively.

"Zach Robinson was very good tonight but we needed a third, fourth, fifth player. We talked about that before the game, people getting opportunities to step up and I don't think that happened."

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