May's monster night leads Palatine over Barrington in OT
Connor May and Palatine are surging.
May scored a career-high 28 points and had 16 rebounds to lead Palatine to a 57-52 overtime win over Barrington Friday in Palatine.
The win moved Palatine (13-5, 4-1) into a tie for the lead in the MSL West with Barrington (14-2, 4-1) as both teams completed the first half of division play.
It was second consecutive overtime win for Palatine while both of Barrington's losses have come in overtime.
"This thing is going to go down to week 10," Palatine coach Eric Millstone said. "It should be like this. It is good for high school sports. It is a lot of fun."
May, who is a junior, has seen his stock rise since the Jack Tosh tournament at York during Christmas. And after college recruiters look at the film from Friday night it could reach the stratosphere.
"I am in the gym a lot," May said. "Me, Tyler (Swierczek) and Sam (Millstone) are in the gym early. We are there before practice and after practice. We are always trying to get better."
With 15.6 seconds left to play, Barrington led 46-43 when May was fouled attempting a three-pointer. Despite a Barrington timeout, May was able to send the game into overtime when he converted all three free throws.
"It was tough," May said. "When I came to the bench coach looked me in the eyes and told me I would make them. I took a deep breath and just went out there and blocked everything out."
May continued his success from the line in overtime, knocking down two more free throws to put Palatine up for good. That ignited a 10-0 run for the Pirates, who would finish the game 18-of-21 from the free-throw line.
Barrington did make it interesting as Donovan Nichols (11 points) knocked down a pair of threes to cut the lead to 57-52 with 11.5 seconds left. But Millstone, who helped the Pirates rally from a five-point deficit in the fourth quarter with a pair of threes of his own, hit two free throws to put the game away.
"It took me a little bit to get me going offensively," said Sam Millstone, who finished with 16 points, all in the second half.
"We talked before the game that if stuff is not falling on the offensive side, find what you are good at. For me that was just getting on loose balls and talking to my teammates."
Palatine took a 20-16 halftime lead thanks to May and Swierczek. The duo combined for all of the Pirates' points with May scoring 13 and Swierczek, who scored seven of his nine points.
Palatine had opened up a seven-point lead and threaten to pull away even further. Barrington was able to stay close thanks to some hot outside shooting. Dillon Schmidt drained a trio of three-pointers. A three-pointer by Alec Schmidts kept the Broncos close at the break.
Schmidt, who finished with 20 points, kept the Broncos rolling in the second half. They surged ahead 38-33 on his short basket with 5:11 to play. But Barrington missed two free throws down the stretch opening the door for the Pirates.
"This team has shown great character," said Barrington coach Bryan Tucker, whose team plays Grant on Saturday. "Their character is going to be tested tomorrow. But I am confident that it will show through."
Ryan Shomaker, Schmidts and Nick Peipert each had seven points for the Broncos.