Barrington beats Warren behind Swanson's 39
Barrington junior guard-forward Gwen Adler found herself sitting in the lane under host Warren's basket Friday night, having collected an offensive rebound in the first quarter.
"Looking for Sophie (Swanson, her high-scoring senior mate) crossed my mind," Adler recalled after the nonconference girls basketball game in Gurnee. "But what I wanted to do, more than anything else, was get the ball out of there before four players surrounded me."
The basketball wound up in Swanson's hands. The Purdue recruit then hit a bucket before Adler, temporarily lounging among a sea of roiling sneakers and limbs, escaped from being whistled for a 3-second violation.
But Adler - and the rest of the reigning Class 4A state runner-up Fillies - stood tall afterward, thanks to Barrington's 61-43 triumph behind Swanson's 39-point, 6-rebound night.
The 5-foot-11 Swanson poured in 29 of Barrington's first 44 points.
Adler finished with 6 points, a team-high 11 rebounds and 5 assists.
"That's Gwen, always hustling, never worried about points," said Fillies coach Babbi Barreiro, now 1 win shy of 500 career victories after her club improved to 21-8.
Swanson's gargantuan night fell 1 point short of her career high - achieved last winter, versus Fremd - and surpassed her 38-point effort against Vernon Hills last weekend. Swanson tallied 20 points in the first half and connected from 3-point hardwood 5 times.
The future Boilermaker nailed a pair of treys 48 seconds apart in the third quarter, the second expanding Barrington's lead to 39-26 at the 5:03 mark.
But Warren (10-16) hung around and hung around some more, opening the fourth frame with a 7-3 spurt - highlighted by junior guard Anika Youngman's 3-pointer - and trailing only 48-39 when junior guard Shay Love netted a layup with 4:44 left.
"I never felt comfortable at any point in the game," admitted Barreiro, whose squad outscored the Blue Devils 13-4 in the final 3:45.
"That's a scrappy team," Swanson added. "We had to adjust, and we got our offense going.
"We look at all of these late-season games as must wins."
Blue Devils junior Nari Powers paced the hosts with 21 points, about 6 better than her average, and grabbed a team-best 11 caroms. Youngman and Love finished with 6 apiece, while junior guard Mariah Phelps tossed in 5.
"We're a team in search of putting it all together at the right time," said Warren coach John Stanczykiewicz, in his 24th season at the school. "We have the talent. We play hard. But we have to be spot-on for longer periods of time than we have been.
"I'm proud of how my team played for three, three-and-a-half quarters tonight."
Warren is near the end of a brutally tough stretch of opponents. The Blue Devils had entered Friday's action with consecutive losses to Lake Forest, Lake Zurich, Stevenson, Libertyville and Evanston.
"Then, tonight," Stanczykiewicz said, "we had to go up against a player (Swanson) that we'll get to see compete for four years on TV."
Barrington junior post player Molly O'Riordan scored 10 points and came down with 6 boards in the first game between the programs in more than 15 years, Stanczykiewicz noted.
Remember former Fillies standout Lindsay Richards?
Stanczykiewicz certainly does.
Parts of Barrington senior guard Sarah Bauernfreund's line Friday night: 1 point, 7 rebounds, a handful of deflections. Modest, perhaps.
But every successful team needs at least one Bauernfreund, unselfishness personified.
"Always dependable, great on defense, an all-around player," Swanson said of her 5-9 colleague.
"Sarah," Adler added, "never stops hustling on the court."