Barrington holds off Thornton, Hoffman
These Broncos are some pretty cool ponies.
Visiting Barrington withstood and even rallied back from a heated Hoffman Estates comeback to score a Mid-Suburban West-opening 63-57 win Friday night.
It seemed Barrington would coast home after a precision-like first-half performance that yielded a 35-25 intermission lead, firing on all cylinders.
Enter Jorden Thornton. The 6-foot Hawks junior simply took over with 10 third-quarter points on uncanny perimeter shooting that enabled the Hawks (1-2, 0-1) to knot the game after three and even take the lead briefly in the fourth on Robert Jacobs' 3-pointer.
The game had taken on a helter-skelter pace - and the Broncos wanted to regain control.
And they did. Remembering to take advantage of their height, they pounded the ball inside to 6-9 junior Rapolas Ivanuaskas (18 points) and got steady play around the basket from 6-6 junior Chris Lester (13) - both of whom proved too big around the basket for Hoffman to contain.
Ivanauskas' putback of a Lester missed free throw gave Barrington a 58-53 lead that not even Thornton's hot hand could overcome.
"The pressure kind of got to us," said Lester, "but once we played our game, we got through."
That meant distributing the ball, hitting the open man and hitting the boards. Barrington outrebounded the shorter Hawks 33-17. Despite a fourth-quarter lapse, Barrington was 26 of 34 at the line, 13 of 14 in the first three quarters.
Even in foul trouble, the Broncos refused to fold. Scott Bennett (12 points) led the charge off the bench and hit all 6 of his free throws while chasing Thornton (32 points) all over the court.
"We feel like we have six or seven starters," Broncos coach Bryan Tucker said of his bench after getting good efforts from Chris Shechtman and Jake Orr.
Hoffman never could maintain command after taking the lead briefly in the fourth. After causing general chaos for the Broncos in the third quarter, Barrington's defense had the Hawks going just 3 of 13 from the field in the fourth quarter while outrebounding them 14-4.
For Thornton, the loss was a learning experience.
"We've got to have better possessions, control the game. I've got to be a more vocal leader on the court," he said.
"Jordon is very talented, very coachable," said coach Luke Yanule. "He'll listen. he knows. He's a team guy."
And he almost carried the team to a win. But he couldn't overcome the pursuit from Bennett, Ben Weber (13 points) and Matt McAndrews, who rotated on him, or tried to.
Ultimately, said Tucker, "I thought our kids did a good job in the face of that adversity. We've got some kids that are tough competitors."
"I love our fight," Yanule said. "But there was not a lot of offensive flow in the first half. "It's time to bounce back," against Wheeling tonight.