Wegner, Barrington cope with CL Central's pressure
It took Barrington a little bit of time to figure out Crystal Lake Central's press on Saturday at the Jacobs Holiday Classic.
It also took Bryan Wegner, the player Barrington coach Bryan Tucker calls the Broncos' senior leader, a little bit of time to get his game going.
Once those two elements fell into place, Barrington was able to turn a 1-point halftime lead into a 65-49 win over the Tigers.
"I thought we just relaxed a little bit, found the open man, and we made them pay a lot too," Tucker said of facing the Tigers' press in the second half.
Tucker thought a few turnovers stuck in his players' heads in the first half. At halftime the coach told his team to settle down and make smart, controlled plays against Crystal Lake's pressure.
"I don't think our pressure was as good (in the second half)," Crystal Lake coach Rich Czeslawski said. "We didn't do the little things we needed to do to make it effective, but they did a better job without question."
"I think we got used to it and adjusted a little bit," Tucker said. "That kind of helped."
Also helping was a big individual effort from Wegner.
The senior guard scored a game-high 23 points (17 of which came after halftime), and added 8 rebounds and 6 assists.
"It was just getting in the flow of the game and realizing what we had to do as a team to pick it up," Wegner said. "We had to figure out what would work when they started pressing us. We had to figure out what to do as a team to break that."
Tucker said Wegner is his most experienced player, and the Broncos need him to step forward when the team is facing tough situations.
"We need him," Tucker said. "We've had a tough stretch the last couple of games. This is a big way to get started after a tough loss (Friday night) in our league. We've got five games coming up in a hurry. A senior stepped forward to make sure we got off on a good foot."
Sophomore forward John Schneider (10 points) provided Barrington with a nice inside scoring presence, while Ben Bartz (8 points), Greg Gerrard (7 points), and James Stack (7 points) helped pad the Broncos' points from the perimeter.
The Tigers had an offensive slump to start the fourth quarter that put them up against the score and the clock, which is something Czeslawski said has been a problem for his team all season.
"We'll do things offensively to keep us in the game, but then we'll go through a four or five minute spurt where we forget everything," Czeslawski said. "We won't reverse the basketball and won't get the ball inside. And that's what happened."
Junior forward Jake Chrystal led the way for the Tigers with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Center Matt Gleixner added 10 points and 5 rebounds, while guard Reilly Kemp had 7 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists.