A strong finish for Conant

Two factors played a key role in Conant's 63-50 boys basketball win over visiting Barrington in the Mid-Suburban West.

A combination of a half-court trapping defense and torrid free-throw shooting in the fourth quarter lifted the Cougars.

"We got the score turned around quickly at the start of the second half," said Conant coach Tom McCormack, whose team trailed 26-20 at the break. "The second-half defense then created some offense. We were then able to create some separation in the score."

Free-throw shooting kept the Broncos (12-12, 3-6) in the contest in the first half. Barrington connected on 11 of 15 free throws.

Conant (13-9, 5-4) took the lead for good with 1:11 left in the third quarter on Christian Sotos' basket for a 32-30 lead.

The Cougars hit 14 of 16 free throws over the first 6:51 of the fourth quarter to build a 55-45 lead. Conant hit 20 of 22 free throws in the quarter.

"We haven't been in too many situations where we've had to make free throws like that," McCormack said. "Brian Wadsworth deserves some credit too. He was 8 of 8 from the line in the fourth quarter."

A 3-point play by Barrington's James Stack with 53 seconds left made the score 55-48.

Sotos, who scored 20 points to lead Conant, nailed 4 free throws and Garett Gatz (11 points, 5 steals) stole the ball and scored for a 61-48 lead.

"I knew in the second half I had to play smarter," said Sotos, who scored 13 of his points in the second half. "We did what he had to do in the second half. While we can't win the division championship we want to be able to secure second place."

"Coach said it would be a fight to the finish at halftime," said Gatz. "We knew to win, we had to lock down on defense."

Ben Bartz led the Broncos with 12 points and 12 rebounds and Brian Wegner had 10 points.

"We gave them a lot of points off of our turnovers," said Barrington coach Bryan Tucker. "We were just careless. But give credit to Conant and their defense. It made us play timid."