O'Shea, Palatine hold off Barrington

In the space of about 2½ minutes, Johnny O'Shea took over the game for Palatine against visiting Barrington.

With the game tied early in the third quarter, first the senior forward hit a reverse layup, then he fed teammate Cortez Hogans for a bucket.

An O'Shea steal and 2 free throws followed. And then the senior finished the sequence with a driving layup to put the Pirates ahead 30-22.

Palatine kept the pressure on for a 46-40 boys basketball win in the Mid-Suburban West.

"He hit some big shots," said Broncos coach Bryan Tucker of O'Shea. "He's just tough, and he creates his own shots."

The 6-foot-3 O'Shea scored a team-high 14 points for Palatine.

"We had to come out and be more aggressive," said O'Shea of the Palatine approach to the third quarter, as the game was deadlocked 19-19 at halftime. "There was no way we were going to lose this game."

Palatine led 16-5 early, but a spirited Barrington rally saw the Broncos score 8 straight points in the last few minutes of the second half to forge a tie after 16 minutes.

"That was something we complimented the kids on," said Tucker of the Barrington comeback. "They showed a lot of fight tonight. Unfortunately we got down early, but they kept coming back. They just ran out of time."

O'Shea's big third-quarter showing paced Palatine to a 10-point lead heading into the final stanza. A 3-pointer from Pirates senior guard Luke Garrett early in the fourth helped extend the advantage.

But Barrington wasn't done. The Broncos' full court press helped the visitors close the gap to 40-34 before a couple of batted balls and oh-so-close steals went Palatine's way.

"We had some opportunities (down the stretch)," said Tucker. "We had a couple of deflected balls that we kind of knocked around away from each other."

A late 3-point play by Palatine senior guard Lamon Berry helped close out the win for the Pirates.

Junior Jason Boock came off the bench to score a game-high 16 points for Barrington, while teammate Jack Reinhard pitched in with 10 points and 5 rebounds.

Jake Moertl scored 12 points for Palatine while Berry added 10.

O'Shea said the Pirates were able to weather the late pressure of the Barrington press due to a timeout called by the Pirates.

"We just told ourselves we had to take care of the ball," said O'Shea, "and we'd get through it."