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Slow start dooms Larkin in loss to Marengo

Take away the first minute and a half and Larkin's girls basketball team could have been celebrating its first victory of the young season Wednesday night.

Unfortunately, things don't work that way.

Spotting Marengo a 9-0 lead in the first minute and 24 seconds, the Royals (0-2) were forced to play catch-up the rest of the way during their eventual 61-46 setback in the second round of the Burlington Central Thanksgiving Classic.

"It's not even so much the 9-0 (score), it's the fact that we're turning the ball over quick enough to score nine points in probably a matter of 35 seconds," said Larkin coach Steve Knapp. "It's something that I've got to waste a timeout on but I can't do that every night.

"It's hard to crawl back. They're (the Indians) a good basketball team. They're athletic and they played well. They took it to us early in the game."

Hannah Ritter's steal, layup and eventual 3-point play opened the scoring and her steal and assist on teammate Jordan Parker's layup capped the Indians' early 9-0 surge.

Marengo's lead grew to 11 at 17-6 before the Royals scored 8 of the next 10 points to draw within 5 at 19-14 after one quarter.

Larkin's run included Aaliyah Dixon's 3-pointer from the top of the key and Kiara Villa's 3-point play with 13 seconds left in the opening period.

However, the Royals caught the turnover bug again in the first 3 minutes of the second quarter when another 9-0 run enabled the Indians (1-0) to stretch their lead to 28-14.

Larkin, which committed 21 first-half turnovers, trailed 39-21 at the intermission.

"As the year progresses, we're going to get there but again it's the turnovers," said Knapp. "We've got to limit turnovers, especially the ones on the other side of the court."

There were several positives for the Royals, most of which came in the second half.

"I don't know if we outscored them in the second half but we definitely played with them," said Knapp, whose team did outscore Marengo 25-22 over the last 2 quarters.

The Royals chipped away at the double-digit deficit, pulling within 10 at 49-39 with 3:47 remaining on a free throw by senior guard Haley Bohn.

Sophomore Brianna Young led Larkin with 18 points and 11 rebounds while Bohn added 11 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. Dixon finished with 6 points and 10 rebounds.

"There are definitely some girls that will put up a fight throughout the whole game," said Bohn. "We need to maybe come out talking more and taking care of the ball."

Ritter finished with 18 points, 7 rebounds and 5 steals for Marengo while junior guard Marissa Knobloch added 15 points.

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