Sotos, Conant cool off Barrington

Conant's Danny Sotos might be the first person to tell you that last season, as a junior, he battled some anger management issues on the court.

But on Thursday night against highly-regarded Barrington, Sotos was cool, calm and collected to help the Cougars get by visiting Barrington 48-45 in a Mid-Suburban West boys basketball showdown.

"I did have a bit of a temper last year," Sotos said. "Over the summer I learned to control it with the help of Chris Dolce and Jordan Hughes. Since we were 2-5 and have the seven-game win streak, we've gotten to this point by playing together and gaining experience. The experience in learning our roles has really been important."

Sotos (13 points) calmly hit a jump shot in the lane with 3:47 left in the game to erase Barrington's only lead, which it got with 5:03 remaining on Chris Lester's 3-point basket from the top of they key.

Lester finished with 18 points, including four 3-point baskets.

Kyle Bradley and Brandon Vinson each hit a free throw to extend Conant's lead to 46-43.

Ben Weber scored on a drive to narrow the gap to 46-45 with 22 seconds left.

Dolce's 2 free throws with nine seconds left made it 48-45 lead.

Barrington's Rapolas Ivanauskas (7 points) tried to tie the game but his 3-point shot was off the mark.

The loss drops Barrington (13-5, 4-1) into a first-place tie with Fremd. Conant is at Fremd on Saturday night.

Barrington shot 38 percent from the field while the Cougars were at 51 percent.

"When they made the run, that got them the lead," said Conant coach Tom McCormack. "I wanted to see how we would play. Danny and Chris kept the wheels on the train for us. Danny played real steady for us. He showed he can play point or power forward. His versatility is what makes him so valuable."

Conant raced out to 11-4 first-quarter lead, but with the help of William Reinhard's 11 first-half points, the Broncos closed the gap to 15-14 with 4:26 remaining before halftime.

Vinson kept the Cougars ahead with two baskets in between a Lester 3-pointer for a 23-19 Conant lead.

Ben Weber hit a 3-pointer from just past midcourt to cut the Cougars' lead to 40-37 heading to the fourth quarter.

Lester added 10 points for the Broncos in the quarter, while Dolce also scored 10 points and Sotos notched 7.

Barrington coach Bryan Tucker had scouted Conant on numerous occasions but it was still tough for the Broncos to get an inside game going.

"They play that tough zone defense all the time," Tucker said. "Our problem is that we didn't execute very well at the beginning of the game. Had we done so, the result could have been different. We didn't finish the shot we had. But I was proud of our kids because they kept fighting back. Even when we took the 1-point lead, I knew Conant was real disciplined and showed leadership. When it came down to it, we didn't make the plays we needed down the stretch."

"Dolce and Sotos just made so many big plays for us on offense and defense," said McCormack. "It was a team effort with other players coming up with some big plays also. This win puts us back in the conference race."

Sotos said the Cougars needed to take away the Broncos' inside game by packing in the middle.

"We needed to make them take outside shots," he added. "We're going to celebrate this one for about two minutes, then we're going to get everyone back together and get ready for our next game."