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Girls basketball: Deuces wild for Palatine in comeback win over Barrington

Palatine's girls basketball team moved into sole possession of second place in the Mid-Suburban West on Friday night and Halle Onyekonwu was second to none when it came to her second-half performance.

The 6-foot-3 Pirates senior center scored nine of her team's first 10 points in the third quarter as Palatine (12-10, 4-2) recovered from a 21-12 halftime deficit to post a 33-31 triumph over the Fillies (9-12, 3-3) in Barrington.

"At half, we talked about how we needed to pick it up," said Onyekonwu, who did exactly that, scoring 9 of her team-high 12 points while also grabbing 10 rebounds. "There was no excuse for them getting all the rebounds and we knew we had to put points on the board."

Onyekonwu's 2 free throws tied the game at 22 with 1:21 left in the third quarter before senior Elise Martino's steal and layup gave the visitors their first lead of the game.

"I picked up two early fouls in the first quarter so I had to sit the whole second quarter," said Oynekonwu, a three-year varsity player who was on the winning side against Barrington for the first time. "So I knew when I came back out in the third quarter we had to get a stop, score, stop, score and my biggest goal was to out-rebound them."

The game was tied at 28 when Palatine took the lead for good on Molly Pieper's lean-in 8-footer with 2:49 left in the game. Pieper added 2 free throws 20 seconds later to make it 32-28 with 2:33 left.

Barrington got to within 33-31 on a free throw by Ashley Mahlum with 47.7 seconds left, but the Fillies missed 2 shots in the final 30 seconds and the Pirates held on.

"Halle played extremely well for us," said Pirates coach Sarah Davis. "I'm just proud of the way we came together in the second half. We played together as a complete team. We had some big minutes from Grace (Kline, a sophomore guard) off the bench and as a starter in the second half. I'm just super proud of all of them."

Pieper added 8 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals while Martino finished with 8 points and 3 steals.

Barrington was led by sophomore Lily Richmond (9 points) and senior Vivi Trivedi (7).

"I have the utmost respect for Babbi (Barreiro, Barrington coach)," Davis added. "I think she does an unbelievable job. She is a very good coach and her teams are very disciplined. But I am just super proud of our girls. They responded and came out ready to go in the second half."

Barrington took an early 7-2 lead when Mel Bongiorno connected on a 15-footer with 4:30 left in the first quarter.

The Pirates answered with a 3-pointer from Martinio before Richmond hit from 17 feet to make it 9-5 with 2:50 left. Martino's layup got the visitors to within 9-7 but Richmond hit again, this time with a 14-footer in the lane to send Barrington into the second period with an 11-7 lead.

Palatine got to within 17-12 on Addyson Dersnah's rebound lay-in.

But the hosts scored the final 4 points of the half on a 17-footer by Richmond and a driving layup by Ashley Mahlum off a beautiful bounce pass from Richmond with 25 seconds left making it 21-12, the biggest lead of the game by either team.

"We put them on the free-throw line two minutes into the third quarter with 5 fouls," Barreiro said. "And then in the fourth quarter we were 3-of-10 from the free-throw line. We didn't shoot the ball very well in the second half. But when that happens, if you are a good team, your defense and your shot selection is going to pull you through. But we didn't make good decisions in either parts of those things in the second half."

Barreiro credited Palatine.

"They played a great second half," she said. "And we just couldn't find a way to put the ball in the basket. But we made too many errors and you've got to hit free throws. We needed better shot selection and more discipline with our fouls.

"I have a great group of kids. They work very hard and I love them. But tonight we needed to be smarter with our decisions on the court."

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