Barrington's Barreiro savors 300th win
Barrington girls basketball coach Babbi Barreiro wasn't preoccupied with the possibility of gaining her 300th career win Tuesday night.
Barreiro was more concerned that her team would bounce back strong from a tough 54-42 MSL West loss to Fremd last Friday.
But the 18th-year Fillies mentor did admit it turned into a special night for her as well.
Playing one of its most complete games of the season, the Fillies ran away with nonconference opponent Huntley, winning 53-30 in Barrington.
“It is special,” said an emotional Barreiro of her 300th victory, while holding flowers and sporting, as was most of the Barrington contingent, a red ‘300' T-shirt that came out after the game. She was also presented the game ball by athletic director Mike Obsuszt and caught off guard with a water cooler dousing from her players.
“It's just nice to remember how lucky I've been to work with such great kids and assistant coaches and what tremendous support I've had from the administration here, and how friends and family come to all the games. You don't get 300 by yourself. I really love what I do and I'm just lucky to be a part of it all.”
To one of the co-captains of this year's Barrington team, it's the Fillies' players who are the lucky ones.
“A lot of us have known her for a long time,” said senior Sarah Maas, who had 10 points, 4 assists and 3 steals in the win. “She's a great coach. She's given so much to us we wanted to give her something back, especially tonight after our game last week. This is her night. It's not Pink Night or any other night. It's her night.”
The Fillies (5-3) didn't have any problem making it a special night for their coach. They jumped ahead 21-11 after one quarter and Huntley never made a serious threat to the lead after that. It was 35-18 at halftime and 47-22 by the end of the third quarter.
“Everything was flowing,” Maas said. “As individuals we've had some good games but today everyone pitched in. It was a good team effort.”
Eight different Fillies scored, led by Brooke Chandor's 14 points. Shelby Whigham added 11. Barrington shot 24 of 44 for the game, including 15-for-24 in the first half. The Fillies also outrebounded Huntley 28-21. But more important to Barreiro and her team was its defense, which forced Huntley (5-2) into 25 turnovers.
“I thought our defense looked more solid tonight,” said Barreiro. “We really struggled defensively against Fremd. Huntley plays an up-tempo offense and I'm glad we responded pretty well defensively.”
Huntley, which was playing without leading scorer Kadie Lowery (ankle), was led by Carly Goede's 8 points. Rachel Chapius added 6 for the Red Raiders, who were just 12 of 38 shooting.
“Obviously it's tough not having (Lowery) but that's not an excuse,” said Huntley coach Steve Raethz. “We didn't have players step up tonight. We weren't in good sync offensively and defensively we gave up too many second chances. I'm really disappointed in our effort tonight. We just didn't come to play.”