Barrington gets defensive, grounds Hoffman

Barrington's girls basketball team trailed 5-3 with 4:12 left in the first quarter Friday night at Hoffman Estates.

Then the Fillies put together a defensive stand that would carry them to a 42-32 victory in the Mid-Suburban West girls basketball opener.

Barrington (5-2) allowed only 1 3-pointer for the final 11:48 of the first half, outscoring the Hawks 17-3 and the Fillies never looked back.

"I thought we did a nice job there defensively," said Barrington coach Babbi Barreiro. "We played zone and the kids did a really nice job communicating."

Fillies junior guard Abby Kirchoff scored a season-high 24 points and was steady as a rock in the final 1:08 at the free throw line.

That's when she tallied the Fillies' final 10 points by hitting both ends of the bonus five straight times.

"I like shooting free throws," said Kirchoff (6 rebounds). "They're easy. There's no one guarding you."

Senior Megan Bernardoni led Hoffman (4-3) with 15 points while junior Jada Stotts added 10.

"For some reason, we have struggled offensively against all the good teams we have played, except for Lake Park," said Hawks coach Mike Nocella. "Defensively, if you take away those last 6 points when we had to foul, I thought we were good enough to win the game. We got ourselves in a hole in that second quarter (just one 3-pointer by Bernardoni)."

A 3-pointer by Bernardoni on an assist from Precious Ogunleye brought Hoffman to within 23-19 late in the third quarter.

But the Fillies were able to pull away again as Kiersten Tinkoff drove to the basket for layup, Sam Maasarani hit a 3-pointer and Kirchoff hit a pair of free throws for a 30-19 with 6:10 left in the game.

Kirchoff was 12-of-12 at the line in the final quarter.

"I thought Abby played a real nice game on offense and she had been struggling there," Barreiro said. "She really converted those free throws when we needed them." Shelby Whigham added 7 points and Sarah Mass 4 for the winners.

"Shelby gave us a nice lift off the bench,' Barreiro added. "Kiersten Tinkoff gave us some real good minutes, too, and Sarah was heads-up on the floor. She always is a good presence on the court. And we got a gutsy performance from Emily Harris, who was not feeling all that well."