Elk Grove tops Mundelein; Barrington falls to VH

Elk Grove’s girls basketball team moved to two game over .500 when it posted a 41-22 victory over visiting Mundelein on Thursday night.

Leading the way for the Grenadiers (6-4) were seniors Diamond Boyd (13 points) and Kelly Naughton (12 points) while classmate Kari Czeszewski chipped in 6.

Vernon Hills 39, Barrington 36: A furious fourth-quarter comeback by the Fillies (9-3) fell just short on their home court.

Barrington trailed the undefeated Cougars 35-16 going into the final eight minutes and ended up missing a 3-pointer in the final 10 seconds that would have tied the game.

“The kids never quit,” said Barrington coach Babbi Barreiro. “I was real proud of that.”

The Fillies’ shooting percentage is what hurt their cause the most.

By quarters, they shot 4-of-14, 3-of-12, 1-of-13 and finally 8-of-17.

“Vernon Hills is a very good team,” Barreiro said. “But we just couldn’t get the ball in the basket. We had open looks but it was just a tough night for us shooting.”

Senior Alexa Resch (8 rebounds, 3 steals) and freshman Bryanna Hopkins (10 rebounds) each scored 8 points for the hosts, who outscored Vernon Hills 20-4 in the final quarter.

“Alexa did a nice job defensively on No. 50 (6-foot-2 DePaul-bound Meri Bennett-Swanson, the school’s all-time leading scorer who had 2 points Thursday) and Maddie Bartz gave us nice minutes off the bench,” Barreiro said. “It was a great fourth quarter. We really attacked and didn’t let up.”

The Fillies had to play most of the game without freshman guard Kelly Katis, who suffered an ankle injury in the second quarter.

“They average 56 points a game, so defense was one of our bright spots,” Barreiro said. “Shooting was not.”