MSL fireworks:Barrington builds big lead, survives Fremd in OT

Alec Schmidts gave Barrington a big start and Oliver Gray supplied the finish as Barrington beat Fremd 77-72 in overtime Friday in Palatine

Thanks to the play of Schmidts, it appeared early on that Barrington (6-1, 3-0) would have the game well in hand.

Schmidts was on fire from the opening tip. He would finish with 28 points, hitting his first 10 shots from the field, including all six of his three-point attempts.

“My teammates kept finding me to make some shots,” said Schmidts, who also had 8 rebounds. “I work a lot and shoot a lot and that helped me make those shots.”

The senior drilled a quartet of three-pointers also had with a pair of baskets as Barrington broke away early. Schmidts’ hot shooting was contagious as Gabriel Gueyikian and Bruce LeBlanc each knocked down treys as Barrington led 25-12 after the first quarter.

The Broncos hit 9-of-13 shots in the period including 7-of-8 from outside the arc.

Barrington continued its onslaught and built a 15-point lead on eight different occasions, the final time coming with 2:45 left in the first half.

That’s when Fremd (5-4, 1-2) finally found its footing.

The Vikings got the lead down to 9 before Schmidts nailed a late three-pointer to give Barrington a 40-28 lead at the break.

Fremd slowly chipped away at the lead in the third quarter. Fremd did not allow Schmidts to take a shot in the quarter. Meanwhile, Ryan Cox and Ryan Brown each had a three-pointer to help the Vikings close to 48-42.

Barrington led 56-49 with 5:25 to play when the Vikings’ Sam Hirsch heated up. The junior hit a pair of threes to pull Fremd to within 58-57 with 3:51 left.

Schmidts finally got free and knocked down his sixth three-pointer to make it 61-57. But a basket by Cox and another three by Hirsch gave Fremd a 62-61 lead with 2:34 left.

Unfortunately for Fremd, it would be their only lead of the game.

Barrington went on a 6-0 run thanks to a three by Gueyikian and three free throws by Adam Baird. That gave the Broncos what looked like an insurmountable 67-62 lead with 19.7 seconds left.

Fremd rallied again, with Cox hitting a pull-up three. The Vikings then trapped Gray and poked the ball away. They picked up the loose ball and got it inside to Brown whose basket tied the game at 67 to send the game to overtime.

In the extra period, Gray recovered to lead his team to the win. The junior knocked down a three to give Barrington the lead for good. He would then add a basket and three free throws to score 8 points in the period and finish with 14 points.

“I just had to trust my work,” Gray said. “I have been playing basketball all my life and I am used to that. I knew I just had to keep going and keep thinking that the next shot is going in.”

Barrington also got 13 points from Nick Peipert, 7 points from Baird and 6 from Gueyikian.

“We looked good early, but the law of averages evened it out in the second half,” Barrington coach Bryan Tucker said. “We talked about how deflating it was on how we finished the fourth quarter. We were ready to go out to start overtime and we realized that right now is going to tell us who we are. It was all about character.”

Cox led Fremd with 23 points while Hirsch finished with 18, with 15 coming in the fourth quarter. Jordan Williams had 12 points while Brown finished with 10.

“It was a great MSL basketball game,” Fremd coach Bob Widlowski said. “We just didn’t hold up our end in the first quarter. But after that I believe we did. We battled out there.”