Conant’s surge continues with win over Barrington
Mid-Suburban West front-runner Barrington entered round two of divisional play at Conant Thursday evening leading Palatine by a game and a half with a 5-0 record including an eight-point home win over the Cougars last month.
Unfortunately for Bryan Tucker's Broncos it ran into a Conant unit that has appeared to have found its footing. The Cougars pinned a 65-45 defeat on the visitors for their fourth straight win after suffering four straight losses during the holiday break.
"Just really proud of our guys," Conant coach Matt Walsh said. "They're coachable. They stick together. They trust each other. They like each other. We always say that the good teams are ones that are getting better. We feel like we're getting better. Getting better at the simple basic play. We also feel like we have a lot of room for improvement and we're ready for what's next."
The Cougars (11-9, 3-3) left those in attendance at Perry Gym with no doubt of their readiness from the opening tip. Outside of an early 2-2 tie, Conant had the lead. It established game control by finishing the first on a 12-3 run over the quarter's final 3:45 to take a 22-10 advantage on senior guard Yusuf Cisse's finger roll with five ticks left.
The Broncos (13-4, 5-1) would get no closer than 28-21 on the third straight triple by Alec Schmidts with 2:52 remaining in the opening half before Conant closed it out by outscoring the visitors 6-2 to lead 34-23 at the break.
The Broncos got no closer than 34-25 on a reverse layup by Adam Baird with 6:11 left in the third before the hosts went on a 10-5 tear to open up a 44-30 edge on another successful Cisse drive to the basket. The Cougars led by no less than 10 the rest of the evening.
Junior forward Bradley Biedke paced Conant with a 24-point, 7-rebound performance followed by senior center Camden Lathos with 16 and Cisse's 15.
Junior forward Nick Peipert's 17 led Barrington followed by sophomore guard Oliver Gray's 10 and Schmidts' 9.
The Cougars outrebound the Broncos 24-13 as they held them to just 17-of-39 (43%) shooting from the field.
Biedke credits his team's recent turnaround after it started their current win streak with a victory over Hinsdale Central at the Mid-Suburban/West Suburban shootout at Addison Trail.
"We started off really slow," the 6-7 Biedke said. "We just feel like we're the underdogs now. People are doubting us and we're not where we (should) be. We just came out here and showed who we are and what we can be and we still have a lot to improve (on). We're not there at our full potential yet which I feel by the time we get to the state (tournament) we'll be there."