Broncos stun Hoffman 54-40

This has been a season filled with difficult times for Barrington's boys basketball team.

Any victory would be welcome at this point. Knocking off the Mid-Suburban West leaders made the Broncos' 54-40 win over visiting Hoffman Estates even sweeter Tuesday night.

"I believe there's a lot of parity in the MSL West and anyone on any given night can beat anybody," said 6-foot-8 Barrington senior Mack Darrow, who had 20 points and 8 rebounds. "We weren't shocked by this and we weren't surprised we got them."

Barrington (4-16, 2-4) put together its most complete performance of the season as it led for the final 11:14.

It dropped Hoffman (15-6, 5-2), despite 26 points and six 3-pointers from Luke Mead, into a four-way tie for first in the loss column in the West with 4-2 Conant, Fremd and Schaumburg.

"It's a different atmosphere on the team right now," said senior guard and third-year starter Daniel Evers, who had 7 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists. "After the Fremd loss (57-42 Friday) we had a meeting with the coaches and said, 'That's not us - we know we can play better than that.'

"We said what's the point of practicing so hard if we don't do it in games."

The Broncos had no shortage of key contributors as Bryan Wegner (12 points) and freshman Sam Handler forced Mead into shots well beyond the arc.

Kyle O'Keefe hit a pair of big early 3s and senior Tommy Massimino helped run an offense that had only 12 turnovers. Chris Howard flew in to score off a shot blocked by Mead just before the third-quarter buzzer to put the Broncos up 37-30.

"That was awesome," Barrington coach Marty Dello said of the emotional lift from Howard.

Hoffman, with Kemill Long missing his second straight game, was basically reduced to a two-man offense against Barrington's array of defenses.

Mead was 6-for-13 on 3s and 8-for-16 from the field and Chris Hall had 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting. They scored the Hawks' first 29 points and the rest of the team went 0-for-16 from the field.

"Luke Mead is a great player but he's human," Evers said after the Broncos scored 21 points off 20 Hoffman turnovers. "Once he misses you've got to get those rebounds."

Barrington took a 29-19 lead 16 seconds into the second half on Howard's steal and layup. Hoffman answered with a 10-point run capped by Hall's steal and dunk.

"When they tied it, I thought 'Oh my gosh, we can not let this happen all over again,'" Evers said.

"Sometimes when you have a losing record you don't know how to win games," Dello said. "You would not know our record (tonight), especially they way we finished."

Darrow scored the next 6 points to put the Broncos ahead to stay. The lead grew to 45-33 with 2:55 left and they closed it out on a 6-point run in the final 1:39.

"Obviously it's been a tough season that's beyond words," Darrow said. "Tonight we showed what we can do when we come out and execute our game plan."