Stay Connected with YourSeason
Girls Basketball: Larkin routs rival Elgin
| Andrew A. Nelles~For Sun-Times Media |
Updated: May 9, 2012 10:15AM
Larkin’s tendency to suffer through flat third quarters seemed to flare up again to start the second half Monday in its quarterfinal contest against rival Elgin in the South Elgin Class 4A Regional.
However, the Royals refused to let this prove fatal to their game and season by playing strong defense on Elgin center Bree Hamilton and speeding up the game’s pace to their own liking as they turned a 29-22 lead with 4:15 left in the third quarter into a 61-34 rout of the Maroons.
“Our third quarters, we come out kind of slow and flat,” Larkin coach Tissanie Simmons said. “So our goal was to come out this third quarter with a strong defensive front and really try to close Bree out of the game. I think we did an excellent job of that.”
Hamilton, who had 16 points and 11 rebounds in her final game, did what she could considering she got into early foul trouble, but the Royals were off to the races in a 9-0 run over a stretch of two minutes that made for a 38-22 lead. After that, they gradually expanded the edge to get into semifinal contest tonight at 6:10 against top-seeded South Elgin.
Simmons credited Paris Patterson, Jill Casebeer, and Alison Driskill with working to hold Hamilton in check. The defensive scheme as a whole had a lot to do with Elgin’s total of 11 third-quarter turnovers.
“Turnovers were the key,” Elgin coach Nick Bumbales said. “We’ve talked about that every game -- we’ve got to stay away from turnovers.
“Our defense wasn’t bad the first half. The second half we had to take a lot of chances and the game got out of reach because of it.”
Three of the third-quarter turnovers led to layups in the 9-0 run, with Abigail Alvarez, Maggie Hofmann, Victoria Patterson, and Stephanie Leon all scoring in the stretch.
“It was definitely a team effort inside,” Simmons said. “Paris played big inside. Jill has been working on how to guard the ‘bigs,’ and Alison Driskill just kind of was taking turns on (Hamilton).
“It was just not being afraid to step up and play some defense on her.”
Elgin had drawn within 16-14 in the second quarter but went into the locker room down 24-16 when the Royals had a strong finish to the half with four different scorers in an 8-2 run.
The Royals, who won two out of three from Elgin this season, had the same collective team effort throughout on offense. A total of 10 Royals scored and six had at least five points.
Alvarez and Victoria Patterson led the way with 12 points each, and Victoria Patterson collected 10 of hers in the second half.
“We had as sloppy start to the first half (13 first-quarter turnovers), but I told them to calm down,” Simmons said. “Obviously they were pretty excited because it was an Elgin game, but once they did settle down we had the big second half.”
Elgin had drawn within 16-14 in the second quarter but went into the locker room down 24-16 when the Royals had a strong finish to the half with four different scorers in an 8-2 run.
Elgin (1-26) stayed in the game until midway through the third quarter with some scoring from surprising sophomore Stephanie Berg, who had nine points.
“We had six sophomores up and we’ve got some hope for the future,” Bumbales said.
Larkin (4-22) has not face South Elgin and star guard Rebecca Smith this season.
“We won’t back down,” Simmons said.
© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.
Cell Phone Alerts
Comments Click here to view or make a comment