Hot-shooting Barrington wins regional over Fremd
Barrington’s Nick Peipert and Alec Schmidts helped the Broncos start fast from long range.
The Broncos drilled 4 three-pointers early in the fourth quarter that helped power Barrington past Fremd 66-51 Friday in the 4A regional final at Dundee-Crown. It was the third win by Barrington over MSL West rival Fremd this season.
With the win Barrington (21-5) has now won back-to-back regional titles for the first time since 1978-1980. The top-seeded Broncos will meet Stevenson in Tuesday’s sectional semifinal at Elgin at 7 p.m. Fourth-seeded Stevenson beat Prospect 43-40.
“It’s tough to win back-to-back titles,” Barrington coach Bryan Tucker said. “With the four classes now and especially with our sectional being so talented. I am really proud of these kids. A lot of people didn’t think they would do much.”
Barrington broke the game open early in the first quarter. The Broncos led by 11 points in each of the first three quarters before posting the 14-point victory.
“Everyone played great,” said Peipert, who finished with 23 points and six rebounds.
“We had some great cuts and hit some big shots. We hit a couple of shots and kept going and got the W.”
With the game tied at 6-6, Schmidts and Peipert each knocked down a three-pointer. That helped ignite the Broncos on a 10-0 run.
“We are fortunate that tonight was our night,” Tucker said. “These two teams know each other well. It just came down to who was putting the ball in the basket and luckily we did it a little bit more.”
Barrington was able to extend that lead to 13 points early in the second quarter.
Fremd (18-10) would begin to rally behind the play of Jordan Williams. The sophomore attacked the basket, scoring 8 of his 25 points in the second quarter.
Fremd pulled to within 26-20 on a rebound basket by Daniel Ko. But after a Barrington timeout, Peipert would score a pair of baskets and Schmidts blasted down another three-pointer as Barrington closed out the half on a 7-2 run and a 33-22 lead.
“We are playing Fremd, so we know the stakes,” said Schmidts, who would hit 4 three-pointers on his way to 18 points.
“We always know we have to come out hot. That’s what we do and that is what we have done every time we have played them.”
Fremd had one more big run left in them. The Vikings were able to cut the lead to 39-32 with 4:48 left in the third quarter on a three-pointer by Sam Hirsch.
Barrington responded by running over a minute off the clock. To add to that, Schmidts nailed a three-pointer from the top of the arc and that took the wind out of the Vikings’ sails. Fremd never got closer than eight from there.
“We chipped away and got it down to single digits a couple of times,” Fremd coach Bob Widlowski said, “They seemed to come up with a quick play or a quick basket every time we made a run.”
It was also the final game for Widlowski, who will retire from teaching at the end of the year. But Widlowski did not want to talk about that. Rather he preferred that the focus be on his players, especially his seniors.
“This is about our seniors tonight,” Widlowski said. “I have had my time.”
Barrington got 11 points from Oliver Gray and 7 points from Adam Baird.
Fremd picked up 15 points from Hirsch and 7 points from Ryan Cox.