Katis, Grayson spark Barrington down the stretch against Schaumburg

Schaumburg was playing inspired basketball Friday night at Barrington.

Using a mixture of suffocating defense and strong play in the post, the Saxons methodically but confidently built a 7-point lead with five minutes to play.

Then the momentum, led by the defensive heroics of senior guard Kelly Katis, turned the Fillies' way.

Katis had two key steals and buckets down the stretch as Barrington closed out the contest on a 18-4 run to defeat the Saxons 49-42 in the Mid-Suburban West.

Fillies senior Auri Grayson scored 6 consecutive points in the final two minutes to help seal the victory.

"Offensively, we struggled tonight," said Barrington coach Babbi Barreiro. "We were not shooting the ball well and we were having a hard time finding our rythym.

"We were too impatient early - we were chucking up shots when we weren't ready to shoot. We finally started to take more high-percentage shots, and those two steals Katie made were huge."

Schaumburg post player Maya Bowens had a strong game with 10 points and 11 rebounds, but it wasn't enough to stop the Fillies' rally.

"They made some shots at the end and we didn't," said Schaumburg coach Curtis Goodwin whose club is 12-8 and 4-2. "They started pressuring us, got a couple of steals and got the lead, and after that it was hard to get back.

"Still I thought we played very well. We've got to learn to take care of the ball a little better at the end, but other than that I'm proud of my girls."

After a sweet turnaround shot in the paint from Bowens gave Schaumburg a 38-31 fourth-quarter lead, Barrington (9-11, 4-2) clawed back to within 38-37 with 3:40 to play.

Then Katis stole a Saxons' inbound pass in the frontcourt and drove the length of the floor for a layup to give the Fillies the lead. Seconds later Katis did it again, picking the pocket of a Saxons ballhandler at midcourt and driving in for another layup.

"My shot was off all night," said Katis, "but I was able to make amends with my defense. I had a great opportunity on that first steal and the second one just came to me."

"Kelly was great on 'D'," said Fillies senior Megan Talbot, who had 11 points to go along with 8 boards. "This was the last Friday game that we seniors we ever going to play on our home court, and we wanted to go out strong."

"I love the atmosphere of these Friday night games," added Katis. "It's one of my favorite things about high school athletics."

Katis sank 2 free throws with 2:05 remaining. Then, after Schaumburg's Mallory Gerber hit a layup, Grayson took over.

Grayson made four consecutive foul shots, then a layup to extend the Fillies' lead to 49-40.

A final basket from Schaumburg's Paige Alt closed out the scoring but that was a close as the Saxons could get.

Gerber scored a team-high 15 points for Schaumburg while Grayson finished with 16 for the Fillies.

Katis scored 12 points to go along with 4 steals and 4 assists.

"I was so proud of Kelly," added Barreiro, "and I thought Rachel Mori and Tori Meyer played great. That's a sophomore and a freshman we're talking about, and they took advantage of their minutes tonight and grew up a little."