Goldsmith, Barrington sprint past Grant
What wiry Barrington junior forward Calvin Goldsmith lacks in girth, he makes up for in speed.
That’s his secret to staying one step (or in his case, five, six or seven steps) ahead of bigger, stronger defenders.
“I’m a little bit thinner. I’m not as thick as most guys my size. Because I’m 6-foot-5, 6-6, I attract bigger, thicker guys usually,” Goldsmith said. “I use my speed and athleticism and try to beat them down the court and use that to my advantage.”
Goldsmith was often beating not only his guy, but everyone down the floor Friday night in Barrington’s 64-44 run-away nonconference victory against visiting Grant. He scored many of his game-high 18 points on breakaway layups simply by hustling ahead of the pack.
Barrington, which improves to 7-9, was down 11-8 at the end of the first quarter. But the Broncos overwhelmed Grant (7-5) with their quick run-outs and up-tempo pace in a 27-6 second quarter to take firm control.
“We got out eventually and started running,” Barrington coach Bryan Tucker said. “We tightened on defense a little bit, kept them out of the paint and that led us to really get out and run. We got some easy baskets and our kids got confidence and that snowballed on them a little bit.
“We were able to sub with our bench, we were fresher and that’s when you saw guys (from Grant) kind of dying. Our big guys like (Goldsmith) and (Rapolas Ivanauskas, 13 points), can play in the post, but we use them like wings because of their skill set and speed, as long as they stay committed to running the floor. We want to try to get some easy stuff (in transition).”
Barrington, which also got 14 points from Scott Bennett and took a comfy 35-17 lead into the halftime locker room, got up by as many as 22 points in the third quarter.
But Grant chipped away and cut the lead to 11 points with just under four minutes left in the game.
The Bulldogs were having success with their full-court press and forced 8 Barrington turnovers in the fourth-quarter alone.
On one Barrington turnover, Grant was about to cut its deficit to single-digits on a fast break. But a Ryan Noda dunk went south and resulted in a charge on Noda. Barrington scored the next 6 points to go up by 17, squashing any hopes the Bulldogs had of a comeback.
“We made dumb decisions in transition. We let stuff get away, and they outworked us, on offense, defense, everything. It was embarrassing to put forth an effort like that in a varsity basketball game,” Grant coach Wayne Bosworth said. “We weren’t hustling. We don’t trust each other right now and we’re not playing like a team.
“Our biggest problem right now is that we don’t play together.”
Senior forward Steve Dunning, who went scoreless in the first half, did his best to be a bright spot for Grant. He had 11 second-half points to go along with 10 rebounds.
The only other player to score in double-figures for Grant was senior guard Mike Burns. He finished with a team-high 13 points, including two 3-pointers. One of his long-range shots was a big one in the fourth quarter. It cut Barrington’s lead to 51-40 with 3:49 left.
“We weren’t together today and our hustle wasn’t there,” Dunning said. “They got a lot of buckets up on fast breaks. We’ve been talking about our team chemistry and working harder and obviously we’ve got more work to do on that.”