advertisement

Barrington adjusts, then stops Lakes

Even though Barrington held a comfortable 8-point advantage at halftime of its contest with Lakes at the Mundelein Thanksgiving Tournament on Wednesday, Broncos coach Bryan Tucker still had a message for his team at the break.

"We were back on our heels at times and we felt like Lakes was outplaying us," Tucker said. "We needed better effort, and that was really the whole message of halftime."

Tucker got it accoss to the Broncos, in particular senior Chris Lester and junior Rapolas Ivanauskas. Those two combined for 25 points in the second half to lift Barrington to a 68-53 win over Lakes.

"I felt like we played much better in the second half," Tucker said. "We were a little more aggressive and played smarter while we were doing that."

Before Barrington (2-1) could pull away, Lakes had one final run. One of two quick 3-pointers from Bennett Haviland (10 points) pulled the Eagles within 32-25 early in the period. Then a long 3 by Dalton Sobrig got Lakes within 36-30 with 4:58 to play in the period before the Broncos started to pull away.

Lester (12 points) hit a pair of long 3-pointers and then finished on a nice pass from Ivanauskas for a personal 8-0 run and a 44-30 Barrington advantage.

"(Lester) hit those two big 3s and we were never really able to get a stop and stem the tide there," said Lakes coach Chris Snyder. "We struggled pretty much all night trying to get the ball to fall for us."

Ivanauskas, who led all scorers with 17 points, hit a long 3 to start the fourth quarter igniting another Barrington run that moved the advantage out to 54-38 early in the fourth.

Ivanauskas was also huge on the glass as his 15 boards led all players.

"He can score inside or shoot the perimeter shot," Tucker said of Ivanauskas. "He's a very talented kid and he has a passion to his game that a lot of people don't realize he has."

Lakes stayed close in the second half thanks in large part to the play of senior Jake Balliu, who scored 10 of his 16 points in the second half and had 5 assists and 5 steals.

"He's our captain out there and he brings those intangibles where guys are feeding off of his effort," Snyder said.

Ethan Sage added 10 points for Lakes. Junior Will Reinhard and senior Scott Bennett added 12 points each to help pace Barrington.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.