Boys Basketball: Larkin continues roll, downs Woodstock North

Updated: November 26, 2011 8:44PM

Larkin continued its solid early season play on Saturday with another victory in the Hoops for Healing Holiday Tournament at Woodstock North. The Royals defeated the host Thunder of Woodstock North 62-45 to begin their season 4-0.

The Royals got off to a very fast start on Saturday taking a 38-23 halftime lead. Larkin shot a stellar 67% from the field in the first half. The Royals dominated the inside feeding the ball to senior forward Antonio Pipes. The presence inside opened up the perimeter game and the three’s began to fall for Larkin.

The Larkin defense held the Thunder (0-4) to 41 percent shooting in the first half and forced eight turnovers.

“I was happy with how we defended in the first quarter,” said Larkin coach Deryn Carter. “After the first quarter though we got away from how we like to defend.”

Freshman Drew Jones led the Royals in scoring on Saturday with 14 points.

“It feels so great to start off 4-0,” said Jones. “I thought our team defense carried us all week.”

Sophomore Derrick Streety added 12 points and junior Quantice Hunter added 10 points for Larkin.

“Our team offense was great today,” said Hunter. “We executed plays and were able to make shots and get out to a big lead in the first half.”

Woodstock North did play hard on Saturday, and although down the entire game was able to pull to within six points with about three minutes left in the fourth quarter. In the end though it was too many turnovers and not enough defense that hurt the Thunder. North was led by senior Zach Devore who scored 12 points for the Thunder.

Although the Royals did get off to an impressive opening week, Coach Carter still knows his team has to improve.

“We have some time off before our next game and we will practice hard,” said Carter. “We need to improve our inside play and get better on defense.”

The Royals ended up winning this week’s tournament in Woodstock. Larkin,Belvidere, and Hononegah all finished with records of 4-0. The first tiebreaker was points against on defense in which Larkin beat out Hononegah by a single point.

“I’m not sure how long it took to get our fourth win last season, but I know it wasn’t in the first week ,” said Carter. “It’s exactly how we wanted to get things started this season.”

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