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Whigham's best helps Barrington past St. Charles North

Over the last four years, Barrington girls basketball coach Babbi Barreiro has watched senior Shelby Whigham recover twice — from ACL surgeries on each of her knees.

On Tuesday night, Barreiro may have watched Whigham's finest performance in a Fillies' uniform.

The senior forward tossed in career-high 21 points with 10 rebounds, 5 steals and 3 blocked shots to help lead the Fillies to a 46-27 triumph over visiting St. Charles North in a Sweet 16 tournament game.

Trailing 6-4, the Fillies (13-6) went on a 10-0 run with Whigman scoring 6 of the points for a 14-6 lead.

Barrington never trailed again.

“I just thought it all started with our (man-to-man) defense,” said Whigham, who was the only Fillie to score in every quarter. “And that makes our offense better.”

With Whigman igniting the offense, the Fillies won their fifth straight to improve to 13-6.

“Shelby had a fabulous game and I thought we picked up off that energy,” Barreiro said. “It's very hard to play hard every minute you are on the floor, and I though Shelby did. I'd call it the best game I've seen her play in four years.”

“Shelby was definitely on her game and we were all happy for her,” said senior guard Sarah Mass (6 points, 2 steals), who has also started on the Fillies varsity the past four years. “It seems like we were just finding her. It wasn't like that was in the game plan. But she was getting open and a lot of that was created by Shelby. She had a lot of rebounds, steals and assists, too. She was helping us, too.”

The North Stars (8-8) made a nice run in the second quarter and came to within 21-19 late in the second quarter on a layup by sophomore guard Alex Silverman.

Two free throws by Nicole Collins (3 steals) made it 23-19 at the break, and the Fillies went on an 8-0 run to start the second half.

“The first three of four minutes of the third quarter were great,” Barreiro said “I thought our team defense was pretty strong. They (North Stars) had some possessions with open looks, but I thought our kids made the adjustments.”

Senior Abby Kirchoff added 7 points, 4 steals, 2 rebounds and 2 assists for the Fillies while clasmate Brooke Chandor collected 4 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.

“The kids got Shelby the ball on offense,” Barreiro added. “As much as she dominated, I felt it was a nice team win. Sarah Mass made some nice aggressive moves to the basket and some nice passes. The girls are capable of playing like this. They just have to do it every game.”

The North Stars were led by senior Sydney Russell (three 3-pointers for 9 points) and Silverman (two 3-pointers and 8 points).

“I saw some positives,” said North Stars coach Colleen Brennan. “We had a nice spurt in the second quarter. But we had a hard time scoring and holding onto the basketball in the second half. We gave them over 20 extra possessions.

“They put a lot of pressure on us in the second half and we didn't handle it well.”

Brennan liked the play of junior Alyssa Garcia, who came off the bench and saw her most varsity minutes.

“She had a huge week in practice,” Brennan said of the 5-foot-7 guard, who hit a 16-footer behind the free throw line to help start the North Stars' second-quarter rally. “Alyssa did a lot of good things for us. Alex (Silverman) hit a lot of big shots for us.”

Barrington (3-1), one game behind Fremd (4-0), has a big MSL West game with Hoffman Estates (12-5, 2-2) on Friday.

“It's definitely a must-win game for us,” Mass said. “They are a really good team and we are really going to have to be ready to play.”

Images: Barrington vs. St. Charles North girls basketball

  Taylor Russell of St. Charles North tries to maintain control of the ball against the Barrington defense, including Shelby Whigham, right. JOE LEWNARD/jlewnard@dailyherald.com
  Barrington’s Sarah mass, right, steals the ball from St. Charles North’s Kate Booe during Tuesday’s game. JOE LEWNARD/jlewnard@dailyherald.com