Barrington’s seniors step up
Austin Madrzyk and Zach Bart combined for all 21 of Barrington’s fourth-quarter points in holding off host Palatine 62-55 in Mid-Suburban West play Friday night.
The win gives the Broncos a 9-11 overall record and evened them up in the conference at 3-3. Barrington paid back the Pirates, who’d beaten the Broncos 46-41 in December.
Barrington controlled the boards with 6-foot-8 sophomore Rapolas Ivanauskas, who scored all 13 of his points in the first half. Ivanauskas pulled down 12 rebounds as the Broncos held the rebounding edge 27-15.
“Rapolas gave us a great start,” said Bart. “He’s a great rebounder and he gave us that spark at the beginning of the game and the rest of the team caught on.”
“We felt we could take advantage on the boards and that was our game plan,” said Barrington coach Bryan Tucker. “We started out strong, had a little lull.When we had to, Bart and Madrzyk came up with big baskets.”
Leading 41-37 going into the fourth quarter, Bart scored the Barringtons first two baskets to open a 45-37 lead.
“That created a little space for us,” said Tucker. “Then Madrzyk came up with a basket and then a 3-pointer and we led 50-39. They are the seniors, the captains, and the players who have gone to war the most. Ivanauskas played some nice defense for us in the second half with a few blocks and a steal.”
Palatine (8-11, 1-5) made a run with a 9-2 burst featuring two 3-pointers by Dondre Watson (28 points) and Chris Macahon (15 points, 5 rebounds) to cut the lead to 52-48 with 3:32 left.
Bart connected on a 3-point play and Madrzyk scored at the 2:50 mark to open a 57-48 lead and the Pirates could not recover.
“Every time we made a run and cut into the lead we couldn’t get the one stop we needed,” said Palatine coach Eric Millstone. “The game was won on the inside. They established it early and they won the game.”
Barrington started the game well building leads of 10-4 and 16-7 before settling for a 21-14 lead to end the quarter.
The Broncos extended the lead at halftime to 34-25 before the Pirates and Watson closed the gap.
Watson scored 10 of Palatines 12 points while holding the Broncos to seven. Watson had five 3-point baskets for the game.
“We had a great week of practice,” said Bart who also had five rebounds. “We came out with fire. It was one of the best games we played this season. This game could be the turning point in our season. There’s room for improvement and we have to just keep getting better and better. If we do that, we’ll see improvement in our games.”