Peipert, Barrington rally past Fremd
Nick Peipert connected with Alec Schmidts 10 times for one touchdown on the football field last fall for Barrington.
On Tuesday, the duo was at it again. They did it this time for another big score as Barrington rallied from six points down to beat Fremd 55-52.
Schmidts took a pass from Piepert on the low post and then slid right up for a layup with 1:22 to play to give the Broncos the lead for good at 53-51.
“I just did my job and came to the basket,” said Schmidts, who scored six of his 12 points in the final quarter.
“My teammates like Nick and Adam Baird, they found me when I was open and I just did the rest.”
Fremd cut the led to one with 1:08 left. But Piepert added a two-point conversion when he knocked down a pair of free throws with 22.1 seconds left to make it 55-52. Fremd would then miss a pair of three-pointers in the finals six seconds as Barrington held on for the win.
“It starts in practice,” said Piepert, who finished with 15 points and was 9-for-9 from the free-throw line.
“The coaches preach get the ball to the middle and the wings cut. And we ended up doing that a lot. You can always rely on Alec. He is a great player and he always gets open.”
The win kept Barrington (15-4, 6-1) tied with Palatine atop the MSL West. Palatine beat Schaumburg 49-31.
“Piepert definitely orchestrated the offense,” Barrington coach Bryan Tucker said. “He did a great job both scoring and getting other guys good looks. And at the other end he did a great job of defending (Fremd shooting guard Ryan) Cox.”
Both teams came out on fire and had the game tied at 13-13 with just under four minutes left in the first quarter. Barrington, which would hit 8-of-13 in the quarter, including a quartet of three-pointers, scored the final 8 points to lead 21-13.
The Broncos would then continue their run to finish with four more points to complete a 12-0 run to lead 25-13.
Fremd (13-8, 3-4), which went scoreless for 6:17, got its offense back on track. With Sam Hirsch knocking down a trio of threes, the Vikings closed to within six and trailed 35-27 at the half.
Fremd continued their comeback by pressuring the Broncos to begin the second half. That led to three consecutive Barrington turnovers. A three-pointer by Ryan Brown put Fremd up 36-35.
Barrington was able to pull back ahead 40-38 on basket by Piepert. But Fremd, led by Jordan Williams, scored the final eight points of the quarter, to surge ahead 46-40 after three quarters.
Barrington got its offense back in gear to score the opening six points of the final period to tie the game at 46-46 with 5:09 to play on a basket by Oliver Gray. The teams traded baskets and were tied twice, the last time at 51-51 until Peipert’s touchdown pass to Schmidts,
Gray would finish with 15 points while Baird added seven points.
“Fremd really provides some challenges, especially matchup-wise,” Tucker said. “They were attacking us and we got back on our heels.”
Williams led Fremd with 20 points and six rebounds. Hirsch would finish with 15 points while Cox had 8 points.
“We came out with a determined effort on both ends in the second half,” Fremd coach Bob Widlowski said. “I thought we gave ourselves an opportunity to win the game tonight. I thought we battled all night long.”