Barrington's inside job leads to MSL West lead

Barrington went inside Friday night.

And when the Broncos came out, they were in sole possession of first place in the Mid-Suburban West.

Barrington's inside game was too much for Palatine as the Broncos grabbed a 51-41 victory in Barrington.

Coupled with Conant's 52-42 win over Fremd, the Broncos inched past the logjam that is atop the MSL West. Barrington (16-4, 5-2) leads Palatine, Conant and Fremd by 1 game with 3 conference games yet to play.

"There is a lot of basketball left," Barrington coach Bryan Tucker said. "There is so much work left. There is no easy game in this division."

Palatine (14-10, 4-3) demonstrated that by jumping out to a quick 7-0 lead. But after a quick Barrington timeout, the Broncos were able to turn the game around.

"That was the key, trying to get high-percentage shots," Tucker said. "Palatine's zone defense does such a great job to force you to play on the perimeter. We thought our kids did a nice job of moving the ball and being patient. When the found a seam, they were able to get to the rim."

Jack Reinhard and Jake Parsons were the key to that for Barrington. The duo combined for 23 points and 11 rebounds, attacking the basket on the offensive end and clogging the middle on the defensive end.

"We moved well," said Reinhard, who led the Broncos with 12 points. "We were definitely cutting better than last time and we got a lot more layups."

Barrington was able to regain control and take a 27-21 lead at the half.

Palatine, playing without Johnny O'Shea who was making a college visit, cut the lead to 27-26 on a basket by Luke Garrett.

Barrington was able to extend its lead to 36-28 thanks to baskets by Jake Parsons, Anthony Spann and Reinhard.

"They were just able to find me down low," said Parsons, who finished with 11 points. "Defensively we were giving good help. They are really good drivers, so we made them beat us shooting, and they couldn't do that."

Palatine still was able to close to 36-32 at the end of the third quarter when the Barrington defense put the clamps on. The Broncos held Palatine scoreless for over 4½ minutes, forcing 3 turnovers and limiting Palatine to 5 shots, all from the outside.

Barrington went on 10-3 run to pull away from the Pirates, who shot 30 percent (16-of-53).

"We played really good team defense tonight," Spann said. "Coach told us before the game that it would come down to defense and whatever team that plays hardest and best on defense would win."

Spann finished with 9 points for Barrington while Jason Boock had 10 points.

Garrett and Ben Storm both had 9 points for the Pirates, with Storm scoring all of his points in the fourth quarter on 3 three-pointers.

Palatine coach Eric Millstone said poor shooting doomed his team.

"That seems to be the case in our losses this year," Millstone said. "It is just a lack of execution on the offensive end. I think the difference in the game was that Barrington worked a little harder to get the looks they wanted, and we just settled for the looks we got."