Inspired Loomis leads Barrington past Elk Grove

You could not blame Barrington's Charlie Loomis if he would have had an off night.

This past Friday, Loomis lost one of his biggest fans, his grandmother, who passed during the day.

"She came to a lot of the games and always had encouragement for me," said Loomis. "She always complemented my play, she was enthusiastic, and was a big influence. I told myself that I would dedicate this game to her."

Loomis, the Broncos' sixth man, came of the bench to score 14 points in helping lead Barrington to an 80-54 home win in a Mid-Suburban crossover game against Elk Grove Tuesday night.

"He gave us a spark that we needed tonight," said Barrington coach Bryan Tucker, who saw his team improve to 6-0. "I think he disrupted Elk Grove's offense and did a good job for us on defense. Being the sixth man and providing good play is always important."

The Grenadiers, who fell to 0-7, gave Barrington fits in the first half by connecting on 9 of 12 3-point baskets. The second half was not as good as Elk Grove connected on only 2 of 19 long range shots.

"Today was a good leap for us offensively, "said Elk Grove coach Nick Oraham. "We made some shots early and we played some good defense. Barrington was just too big physically for us. They did a lot of the little things you have to do and they were not afraid to get dirty. "

Elk Grove's Joe Kalish (15 points) hit four 3-pointers in the first half and Maura Garay 2 as Elk Grove trailed 22-20 after one quarter and 36-33 at halftime.

Barrington used the first 1:37 of the third to break open the game.

Connor Keenan and Conner Groom hit 3s for the Broncos, followed by a 3-point play by Dylan Keenan. That stretched the lead to 45-33.

Mark Matos scored 8 of his 13 points in the third quarter for the Grens but balanced scoring by the Broncos found them ahead 61-47 at the end of the quarter.

Baskets by Joe Bulgarelli and two by Nate Boldt to start the fourth quarter upped the Bronco lead to 67-47 and Elk Grove could not recover.

"We have such a tall lineup and we have really good rotation," said Loomis. "We were able to get good balanced scoring. They played us tough in the first half. We had to push them off the arc. That big start in the second have gave us the momentum we needed and it helped us to get locked in. We made good passes and found the cutters going to the basket."

Damian Zivak led Barrington with 15 points and Boldt added 10 points to go with 5 rebounds. Dylan Keenan had 8 points and Connor Keenan had 7 as did Aaron Sarkar.

Matos scored 13 points for the Grens and Devin McKinney had 9 points.