It ends up as another Barrington win

Barrington girls basketball coach Babbi Barreiro wasn’t exactly thrilled with the way her team closed Friday’s Mid-Suburban West game at Palatine.

But the Fillies sure have opened their season in a thrilling matter.

They ran their record to 11-1 after a 44-36 victory over the Pirates, who outscored the visitors 18-11 in the final eight minutes.

Barrington held Palatine to only 3 points in the third quarter.

“Obviously, I’m glad we got the win,” said Barreiro whose team improved to 3-0 in the Mid-Suburban West while Palatine stands at 4-7 and 0-3. “But we talked after the game about closing out better.

“We gave up only 3 points in the third quarter and then 18 in the fourth. We felt we didn’t do a very good job there defensively. We’ve got to get better at closing.”

Senior Carrie Madden’s driving layup off a pass from classmate Brooke Gunderson gave the visitors a 37-25 lead with 1:54 left in the game.

Pirates senior Morgan Radtke, who scored 10 of her 13 points (including 6-of-6 free throws) in the fourth quarter, answered right back with a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 37-28.

But the Fillies made 7-of-8 free throws in the final 1:25 to secure the win.

Gunderson’s 2 free throws with 1:03 left gave the Fillies a 41-30 cushion.

She finished with 8 points, 4 assists, 4 steals and a rebound.

“Brooke did a nice job around the basket,” Barreiro said. “And she had some big steals.”

“The key to our team is that we always stress taking care of own business and not worry about the other team,” Gunderson said. “Coach Barreiro says we have to play Barrington basketball so we try to stay focused on that. We have to have our heads in every conference game we play.”

The Fillies were focused at the free throw line when they had to be.

Senior Angie Kirchoff made 4-of-4 in the final 1:25 and Aoife Callanan (big 3-pointer in the second quarter) hit one.

Junior Bailee McDonald (6 rebounds) led the Fillies with 10 points while teammate Megan Talbot (5 points) was tops in rebounds with 9.

“Bailee did a real nice job around the basket,” Barreiro said. “Angie finished the game well. Megan Talbot did a nice job picking us up on the boards and Carrie Madden had a couple of big buckets.”

In addition to Radtke, Erin Mayer also reached double figures for Palatine. The senior forward scored 12 points, including 4 baskets in the first half.

“In my opinion, these girls are doing everything we ask them to do,” said Palatine first year coach Mark Johnson. “And they are playing their hearts out. I could not be prouder of them.

“We just need more timely baskets, not as many turnovers and must take advantage of the opponent’s turnovers. Every time we got close, it seemed something negative happened. But the girls don’t quit.”

Sami Heuertz, Morgan Gallagher and Carissa Multon also made it into the scoring column for the hosts.

“We talked about defense and stopping Megan Talbot and Angie Kirchoff,” Smith added. “We held them to a combined 9 points. But their other role players did a nice job stepping up and won the game for them.

“Barrington hit its free throws and took care of the ball. They did a good job.”

Barreiro likes the job her girls are doing in practice.

“They are very coachable and they are thinkers,” she said. ““They will think about what we talked about after this game and hopefully they will take out of it what we need.”