Hoffman tops Barrington

Due mostly to a combination of tight, double-teaming Barrington defense and foul trouble, Hoffman Estates leading scorer Luke Mead was held scoreless through 31/2 quarters Thursday night.

Not to worry - the rest of the Hawks, especially senior Chris Hall, were able to pick up the slack.

Hall scored 19 points as Hoffman ground out a methodical 53-38 victory over the visiting Broncos in the Mid-Suburban West, offsetting a tremendous performance by 6-8 Barrington senior Mack Darrow.

Darrow scored a game-high 21 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked 3 shots as Barrington rallied to tie the game in the third quarter but then went cold.

"There were times tonight when we needed good decisions to keep moving in the right direction," said Hoffman coach Bill Wandro, "at those times our guys made the right decisions and we were able to pull away."

"Chris (Hall) gets his points in all different ways, and tonight he was able to get his shots - he didn't have to force anything."

Barrington (1-7, 0-2) trailed at halftime but fought its way to a 29-29 tie after Darrow nailed a long 3-pointer, but Hoffman scored the next 8 points to draw free.

Mead's first points of the game, a layup, put the Hawks (6-0, 2-0) ahead by double digits midway through the fourth and the Broncos couldn't catch up.

"We were right there," said Barrington coach Marty Dello. "Our game plan was to take Mead out of the game, and I thought we did a good job at that. But to their credit the other guy (Hall) stepped up.

"We also only went 7-of-14 from the free throw line, and that's not going to cut it in the MSL."

Chris Howard scored 9 points for the Broncos, while Mead finished with 10 points for the Hawks, all in the final minutes and Tom Dombrowski added 7.

"In the second half," said Wandro, "we put them in some shooting positions that they didn't want to be in, and I think their shooting percentage went way down."