Barrington defense grounds Grant

John Schneider kept soaring, as the 6-foot-7 junior's point total stretched to an unprecedented total.

And then Barrington's basketball team took off.

With defense.

A dominating defensive effort in the third quarter grounded Grant and propelled the visiting Broncos to a 68-51 nonconference win in Fox Lake on Tuesday night.

Barrington, which improved to 17-7 while dropping Grant to 13-7, broke open a 28-28 halftime tie by scoring the first 10 points of third quarter.

"We wanted to stop them on defense, and then once we did, we wanted to run on them," Schneider said. "I think we can run with a lot of teams."

Schneider, whose athleticism and lean frame suit an up-tempo pace, poured in a season-high 24 points. His 8-of-11 shooting included a pair of two-handed dunks and a 3-pointer. He grabbed 9 rebounds and blocked a shot, as well.

"Coming into the game, I wanted to start being more aggressive toward the basket," said Schneider, whose previous high game was 18. "When I had an open shot, of course I was going to take it. But my focus was definitely on going to the basket, and it paid off."

Barrington built a 24-13 lead by early in the second quarter, but a 3-pointer by Grant's Allen Lewis (11 points, 6 rebounds) started the Bulldogs on a 13-0 run. The hosts led 28-26 until Barrington's Greg Gerrard scored on an offensive rebound in the final seconds to pull the Broncos even at halftime.

"We were disappointed with how we defended in the second quarter," Barrington coach Bryan Tucker said. "We felt Grant definitely took the game to us."

Barrington's Tyler Weathered opened the second half by draining a 3-pointer, and 7 straight points by Gerrard (15 points) had the Broncos up 38-28 with just two minutes gone.

Two free throws by Gerrard capped an 18-1 run and made the score 46-29 with 2:21 left in the third.

"Their defense stepped up," Grant coach Wayne Bosworth said. "They're a great defensive ballclub. They said at halftime, 'Enough of this. We're going to up our D,' and that's exactly what they did."

Grant didn't hit its first field goal of the second half until Kyle Lombardino (4 points, 5 rebounds) scored on a putback with 2:02 left in the third. The Bulldogs missed their first 10 shots of the second half.

"Their help-side defense was great," Bosworth said of the Broncos. "Every time we got the ball in the post and looked to make a move in it, they had three guys dropping down and getting hands on (the ball), tipping it and getting it loose. We need to be able to look weak side when all of their guys are rotating over."

Barrington outscored Grant 21-5 in the third.

"We thought we were letting them hang around too much (in the first half)," Schneider said. "So we wanted to come out and finish it early."

Grant's Jared Helmich hit a 3 and scored 7 of his team-high 17 points in the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs realize they had a great chance to notch a win against a team that sits in first place in the Mid-Suburban League West Division.

"It shows where we're at," Bosworth said.

"We got a lot of work to do. We got to step up our defense. We got 2½ weeks to get our defense somewhere near (Barrington's) level heading into regionals."

Schneider helped secure Barrington's ninth win in 10 games by scoring 8 points in the fourth.

He had 12 points at the break.

"I thought he carried us the first half," said Tucker, whose team also got 10 points from Lukas Osmundsen and 4 steals from Brad Zaumseil.

"He created shots," Tucker added of Schneider.

"He was aggressive, and was intelligently aggressive. He wasn't forcing. He was just making good decisions."

Grayslake Centgral 76, Woodstock 59: Grayslake Central's boys basketball team outscored Woodstock 40-19 the first half and went on to beat the Blue Streaks 76-59 Tuesday night at Woodstock.

Casey Boyle scored 15 points for the Rams (12-10, 7-3 Fox Valley Fox). C.J. Stempeck added 13 points, and Danny Reed had 12.

Grayslake North 54, Woodstock North 31: The visiting Knights maintained their share of first place in the Fox Valley Fox, as Teddy Ludwick scored 21 points.

A.J. Fish added nine for Grayslake North (16-5, 8-2), which won its third straight.