Barrington overcomes Elgin

The Elgin boys basketball team attempted enough free throws Wednesday to make an opposing coach's head spin, but Barrington was able to win the nonconference game at Chesbrough Field House 74-67 by exploiting the Maroons' lack of rotation.

The ever-watchful officiating crew whistled 57 combined fouls. Though Barrington (12-11) led 47-43 after three quarters, Elgin (5-18) reached the super bonus before the third quarter elapsed.

The Maroons made 28 of 38 foul shots in the game, including a 15-of-19 performance in the fourth quarter. Elgin tied the game at 49 with 5:57 to play when forward Kory Brown split a pair from the line.

"The refs were calling it really close, so we had to adjust," Barrington senior guard Bryan Wegner said. "But they were calling it both ways so we really can't complain."

Barrington, which sank 27 of 33 from the line overall, responded by sinking 13 of 17 from the free-throw line in the final period. Wegner shot 15 of 17 from the line overall to lead all scorers with 28 points to go with his 8 rebounds and 3 assists.

The Broncos pulled away in the fourth quarter by burning Elgin with multiple backdoor cuts for layups. They regained the lead at 52-49 when junior forward Owen Pruskis spotted cutting forward Mark Bennett (13 points) for what turned into a three-point play.

Barrington built its biggest margin of the game with 3:42 remaining, 62-54, when Wegner scored after receiving a backdoor pass from junior Greg Gerrard.

"Our defensive rotation was maybe the worst we've had all year," Elgin coach Mike Sitter said. "We can always guard on the ball because that's pretty simple, but you have to have a high basketball IQ to guard off the ball and we didn't have that tonight."

A lack of communication was the main reason, according to Brown.

"Defensively, we're not talking enough," he said. "We have to do better at calling out the help side."

The Maroons made one last push with a 7-1 run on the strength of 4 free throws and a 3-pointer by Brown. The 6-foot-2 sophomore led Elgin with 20 points and 4 steals. His 2 free throws with 2:45 to play trimmed the deficit to 63-61.

It was still a 2-possession game when Brown split a pair from the line to keep Elgin within 71-67 with 59 seconds left, but Wegner was fouled with 30.8 seconds left on the clock and sank both free throws. The Maroons missed a 3-point attempt at the other end, and Barrington's Ben Bartz closed out the scoring by halving 2 free-throw attempts.

"We've won two in a row now," Barrington coach Bryan Tucker said. "I told our kids afterward it was an ugly game, but you can learn from an ugly game. Our kids had to adjust and they did."

Sophomore John Schneider scored 10 points before he fouled out in the final minute, one of three Broncos disqualified with 5 fouls.

Dennis Moore scored 15 points and Jordan Dean had 10 points for the Maroons.

Now the Broncos can look ahead to Friday's rematch at Conant, which beat Barrington on Jan. 8 with an overtime tip-in. Elgin next plays at Bartlett on Saturday afternoon.