Grant 62, Barrington 57

There was an awful lot of youth out on the court Tuesday night at Barrington, making an awful lot of youthful mistakes for Class 4A boys basketball regional foes Grant and Barrington.

In the end, Grant had a bit more experience on the court throughout the game and it was Barrington feeling the growing pains in a 62-57 Bulldogs victory that puts them in tonight's regional semifinals against the host club.

Neither team looked comfortable throughout as Grant raced to a 15-1 lead and then had to close the game just as efficiently as they opened it to hold on.

And they did, with point guard Mike Shields (30 points) hitting 7-of-8 fourth-quarter free throws and forward Curtis Oler (16) the same. Grant was 27-of-36 at the line in moving to 16-11, its most wins in five years.

The Broncos never did find an answer for Shields as switching defenses, switching players on him in man-to-man and even double-teaming just never slowed him.

"Shields killed us," said junior center Mack Darrow, who paced the Broncos (8-20) with 15 points. "We were letting them do whatever they wanted on the dribble."

Barrington actually rallied back from that early deficit to go ahead just before halftime and again after 3and into the fourth on Wade Lernihan's fast-break bucket. But the Broncos dug deep for some pride rather than let themselves get blown out.

"We didn't want to lose a game like that, the last game for the seniors," said sophomore forward Kyle O'Keefe, whose outside shooting (13 points) helped the Broncos rally.

In foul trouble, the Broncos could barely leverage their height advantage on the boards and didn't get to the line as much as the Bulldogs, mostly on Shields' driving.

"He did a very nice job," said his coach, Phil Ralston. "Barrington threw a couple of different wrinkles at us we weren't ready for," and he handled them as Grant committed 12 turnovers to Barrington's 19.

"Our kids were confident we'd come back," said Broncos coach Marty Dello, whose club returns 8 of the 12 players who took to the floor Tuesday night.

And they can't wait.

"Next season starts tomorrow," said Darrow.