Barrington adjusts, sinks CL South
Barrington senior Mark Bennett couldn’t remember having so much time to shoot around at halftime of a game.
Usually there is little if any time before the second half starts. But this wasn’t a reward for the Broncos’ play in the first 16 minutes of their nonconference home boys basketball game.
Coach Bryan Tucker’s return to the court with six minutes left in intermission basically spoke volumes about their 3-point deficit to Crystal Lake South.
The Broncos got the message loud and clear by turning its pressure defense into an 11-point lead after three quarters and holding on for a 59-53 victory.
“It was a special talk,” Bennett said with a smile. “We came out pretty flat.
“We had poor decision-making overall and went back to a lot of the things we had corrected throughout the year. It was disappointing.”
But it fueled a 23-9 third-quarter outburst where Bennett scored 8 of his 21 points for the Broncos (15-7).
The change was evident almost immediately when Bennett and Scott Nelson were scrambling all over the floor to force one of 8 third-quarter turnovers by the Gators (6-14).
“I was a little disappointed with that and there was nothing new to say,” Tucker said of the Gators’ 22-19 halftime lead as Max Meitzler scored 10 of his 21 points and hit two of his three 3s. “We played with a little more energy, got a few bounces and took care of the ball. We snapped out of it.”
Jackson Wegner and Ryan Carroll turned steals into layups. Western Illinois-bound John Schneider scored 7 of his 11 points and a buzzer-beating baseline drive by Brad Zaumseil (11 points, 4 assists) put Barrington up 42-31 after three.
“You could tell almost by our body language we were more ready to play and compete,” said Bennett, whose 7 rebounds tied Carroll for the team lead.
Barrington scored 10 third-quarter points off turnovers and finished with 22 off 22 Gators’ miscues.
“We talked about it at halftime that they’re really aggressive trapping the first pass and bringing their deep guys up,” said CL South coach Dan DeBruycker. “After we handled it a little better we got some layups but it took too long to do that.”
It only took a couple of minutes for the Gators to get back in the game with a 6-point run. A drive by Alex Bartusch cut the deficit to 50-48 with 2:20 to play.
But Zaumseil found Nelson for a layup and 3-point play six seconds later. Carroll, Bennett and Zaumseil combined to hit 6 of 8 free throws in the final 1:46.
“We still have a ways to go and we have yet to play a perfect game,” Bennett said. “The big message today is when we go to the playoffs we can’t play the first half the way we did and expect to win.”