Maine South impresses again in semifinal win over Barrington
After losing to undefeated Maine South by 15 points at Buffalo Grove early this season, Barrington was hoping to upset the Hawks Thursday night in the semifinals of the 40th annual Komaromy Holiday Classic girls basketball tournament at Dundee-Crown.
The Fillies got off to a decent start only trailing 12-11 early on. But a 12-2 first-quarter run by the Hawks followed by an 11-2 second-quarter surge pretty much squashed any hopes of a Barrington stunner as Maine South took a commanding 37-19 lead into halftime.
The Hawks (17-0) wound up rolling to an impressive 66-34 victory over the Fillies (10-6). Maine South will face Stevenson for the championship Friday at 8 p.m. Barrington will take on New Trier in the third-place game at 6:30 p.m.
The Hawks showed their firepower throughout the contest as senior guard Meegan Fahy (5 rebounds) scored 12 of her team-high 14 points in the first half. Asia Kobylarczyk (5 rebounds) also hit double figures with 12 points for Maine South while teammate Ally Pape had 9 points and 6 rebounds.
The Fillies were unable to contain the Hawks’ versatile attack as Katie Barker had 8 points, Caitlin Leyden had 6 points and 5 rebounds, and Ava Blagojevich had 6 points and 5 assists.
Barrington's Molly O'Riordan scored 12 of her 14 points in the first half while teammates Smira Alam and Vidi Trevedi scored 6 and 5 points, respectively.
"That's what Maine South can do to you. They're so athletic at every position, and they're so quick to the basketball everywhere you go,“ said Barrington coach Babbi Barreiro. "They're very good at taking advantage of any misstep, any difficult decision they take advantage of, and that's part of why they are 17-0 now."
Maine South outscored Barrington 17-10 in the third quarter to take a 54-29 lead into the final quarter before continuing to pull away in the final eight minutes.
"We really wanted to push the floor. Defense was a big thing in shutting down Molly (O'Riordan) and stuff, and just playing our game," said Fahy. "We don't really think about that (being undefeated), just like 1-0 for the day, and we just play our best each day."
Maine South coach Jeff Hamann pointed to his team's defense as one of the keys to the win.
"Barrington is a good team and we knew if we were able to play at our pace at both ends of the floor defensively and offensively we're very difficult to keep up with for four quarters," Hamann said. "We were able to switch our defenses. We have three different defenses, we're able to switch them up and kind of find what's working for us and that's also a nice advantage to have."