Thompson's big day not enough as Barrington falls to Maine South

Barrington got a terrific performance from Taylor Thompson Saturday at the Buffalo Grove girls basketball Thanksgiving tournament.

The junior scored 28 points and had 8 rebounds but unfortunately for the Fillies, it wasn't enough to overcome Maine South.

The Hawks, led by the play of senior Nicole Scales and sophomore Nicole Gardiner, defeated Barrington 56-44.

"Taylor had a nice game," said Fillies coach Babbi Barreiro, "and I thought our kids did a nice job getting her the ball. She's a very effective basketball player and she was out there working hard today."

There was a wide disparity in the contest not only in free throws made and attempted but also in 3-point tries.

The Hawks shot 36 three-pointers and made 9 of them, while Barrington was 0-for-9 from 3-point range.

On the other hand, at the foul line, Maine South was just 1-for 2 while the Fillies hit 20-of-29, including a stellar 12-of-13 by Thompson.

"Thompson is very, very good," said Maine South coach Jeff Hamman. "She's got a nice soft touch around the rim, and she knocked a lot of free throws down because we put her on the line a lot."

The game was nip-and-tuck through the first two quarters. Barrington had a 1-point lead midway in the second, but 5 straight points from Scales - a layup then a 3-pointer - put the Hawks ahead.

Then after the break, Maine South went on a third-quarter run and when Scales sank another 3, the Hawks led 38-22 with 4:58 remaining in the period.

"Our defensive energy and integrity (in the first half) wasn't where we wanted it to be," said Scales. "After halftime we made sure we came out firing on the defensive end, and that got our offense going."

Gardiner posted 5 of her 7 rebounds in the third quarter to give Maine South the momentum.

"We wanted everyone to start hyping each other up (in the second half)," said Gardiner. "In the first half we really weren't talking a lot. We got more enthusiastic about it and just crashed the boards."

"Their 42 (Thompson) is a great player," added Gardiner. "It's really hard to guard her. You've got to make sure to get in front of her and stay still but we really weren't doing too good at that and that's something we've got to improve on."

Thompson scored 9 of her points in the fourth quarter to help keep the Fillies within striking range.

But then with just minutes left, Hawks junior guard Erin Clark made a steal and passed to teammate Katie Schoneman for an easy layup to put Maine South ahead 51-40.

Then on the next possession Clark hit a long 3, and the game was out of reach.

Scales scored 18 for Maine South, Gardiner added 10 while Clark and Niki Manolis had 8 points apiece.

"Our philosophy is we front the post," said Hamann. "We needed to get off the weak side and we did that a couple of times in the second half. We've kind of got a lack of size so we need players like our number 22 - Gardiner - to step up and she did. It's got to be a group effort but Nicole is relentless on the boards. She's very active and tough in there too - she's not one to back down from contact."

Sophomore Michaela Goetze scored 8 points for Barrington.

"I was proud of our kids today," added Barreiro. "We're younger, we've got three freshmen and a sophomore out there, so we make some mistakes and we were little short-handed today so I thought the kids were gutsy. We didn't give up and I like the direction we're going."