Larkin rolls by Batavia
Asked why his Royals were able to bounce back from an 18-point loss at Batavia on Dec. 16 to defeat the same Bulldogs 67-40 in an Upstate Eight River game in Elgin Wednesday, Larkin boys basketball coach Deryn Carter reiterated the words of noted NBA philosopher Allen Iverson.
“Practice. Practice,” repeated Carter, who, unlike the former 76ers star, never questions the value of a good practice session. “And I would be really upset if any of my guys would not agree that it was practice.”
Carter pointed to the six weeks of work the up-and-coming Royals put in since their first meeting with the Bulldogs.
“ Everyone works hard, but we like to take pride in that we’re working pretty hard in practice and attacking one another,” he said. “We’re deep and it shows in practice. We can split up guys and you don’t know who’s the starter and who’s the bench guy. That’s good.”
In fact, Larkin’s bench guys were particularly good against the Bulldogs. Of the Royals’ 67 points, 35 were scored by non-starters.
“We were real hungry. Revenge,” said reserve guard Quentin Ruff, who led a balanced Larkin attack with 12 points. “We didn’t like the way we came out last time and took the loss. We just came out prepared to get a win.”
Batavia (4-15, 1-8) led 13-12 after a quarter, but Larkin (13-7, 5-4) closed the second period on a 15-0 run to take a 37-18 halftime lead. Ruff opened that spree with his second 3-pointer of the game, freshman forward Daniel McFadden contributed a pair of low-post buckets and active senior Blake Grantham (8 rebounds) scored all 6 of his points during the push.
Batavia struggled offensively throughout its 10th straight defeat. The Bulldogs did not score a field goal in the second quarter (0 of 12) and its field-goal drought lasted 10:58. “We’re having a heck of a time scoring the basketball,” Batavia coach Jim Roberts. “That being said, we’ve got to find a way. We talked about digging out a loose ball and just taking it to the basket, crashing the boards from the weak side for a quick putback, that sort of thing.
“When things are getting bogged down it’s very easy to pass and stand. We’ve got to get continual movement.”
Cole Gardner led the Bulldogs with 27 points and 16 rebounds in the first meeting between the clubs, but the 6-foot-6, 240 pound senior scored 20 points — 10 from the free-throw line — and hauled in 8 rebounds in the rematch. No other Bulldog scored more than 5 points.
“Really, their big guys are the strong point of their team and how they usually get most of their points,” 6-5 Larkin forward Antonio Pipes said. “We figured if we shut that down, we shut them down.”
The team shooting percentages were nearly reversed from the first meeting. On Dec. 16, Batavia shot 53 percent (26 of 49) while Larkin shot 23 percent (14 of 60).
In Wednesday’s rematch, Batavia shot 20 percent (12 of 60) and the Royals improved to 52 percent (26 of 50). Turnovers were a big reason. Larkin won that battle 22-13, which ignited its fast-break game.
“I thought the first time we played them they came at us just as hard but we did a better job of protecting the basketball and scoring the ball,” Roberts said.
Seven Royals scored 6 points or more. Sophomore guard Derrick Streety had 11 points and sophomore Drew Jones added 7 points and 3 rebounds.