Barrington takes care of Fremd
Barrington still has to overcome two obstacles to determine if it is destined to end a pair of decades-long boys basketball title droughts.
But the Broncos cleared a major hurdle Friday night in Palatine to gain control of their own destiny in the Mid-Suburban West. They took sole possession of first place with a 74-61 victory over defending MSL champion Fremd.
The Broncos’ (16-7, 6-2) eighth win in nine tries put them in position to clinch at least a share of their first MSL division title in 20 years with a win next Friday at Schaumburg (9-10, 5-3), a 40-39 loser to Conant (14-6, 5-3). Their only trip to the league title game came in 1979.
“We’ve been talking about it and we really want it bad,” said Barrington senior guard Tyler Weathered, who had game-highs of 16 points and had 10 rebounds. “When we see an opportunity we really lock in on it and we don’t want to let anything slip away. This was a huge win for us.”
A lot of big efforts produced the most points allowed by Fremd (14-8, 5-3) since it lost 80-50 to Waukegan in a 2009 regional final.
“You have to play a complete game to beat them,” said Broncos coach Bryan Tucker after his team reversed a 53-41 loss to Fremd on Dec. 3.
“We’re clicking and it doesn’t matter who comes on the floor,” said Barrington senior guard Greg Gerrard. “We’re playing really well as a team and everyone is playing to their strengths.”
There were no tears from the Broncos after Gerrard (10 points) lost a little blood from a fourth-quarter gash on his chin. He also gave up plenty of sweat in hounding MSL scoring leader Zach Monaghan (22.7 ppg) to 15 points on 4-for-18 shooting from the field and 2-for-11 behind the 3-point arc.
“Greg did a great job,” Tucker said after Monaghan scored 4 points in the first 58 seconds.
Sophomore guard Brad Zaumseil (13 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists) limited Fremd senior Quinton Brown’s potentially damaging drives into the lane. Brown scored 13 of his 15 points in the final 4:13 after Barrington opened its largest lead at 57-41.
Lukas Osmundsen came off the bench for 10 points and 5 reobunds and Owen Prunskis scored all 8 of his points in the fourth quarter. John Schneider had 7 points and 8 rebounds and Mark Bennett’s 8 points included a big 3 to cap a 13-3 tear to start the second half for a 49-33 lead.
“We have a ton of weapons on this team,” said Weathered, who hit three 3s as the Broncos were 7-for-14 behind the arc. “If one guy gets shut down another guy can step up and perform as well. That’s what we did today.”
And Barrington backed its defensive effort with a 38-30 rebound advantage and only 6 of its 9 turnovers through three quarters.
Fremd used a 17-4 tear sparked by Garrett Peters and Joe Leaf to take a 27-25 lead 3:17 before halftime. Weathered and Zaumseil answered with 3s to get the Broncos back in control.
“The first time we played them was our best defensive effort of the year,” said Fremd coach Bob Widlowski. “This obviously was not our best defensive effort at a critical time. We didn’t take them out of anything they wanted to run.”