Barrington holds off pesky Hoffman Estates

In the Barrington boys basketball media guide, junior forward Connor Keenan lists "Business Incubator" as his favorite class.

"It's a class where you get to go through the whole process of creating a business and being an entrepreneur. I really like the experience and everything that we get to do," Keenan said. "We are creating an app for high school students to learn more about the college experience so that they can go on and ask college students about campus social life and everything you wouldn't hear on the college tour.

"If we get funded, it could be a real app."

Then Keenan would really be in business.

In the meantime, Keenan is out to take care of business on the basketball court for the Broncos. And at 6-foot-5, one of his top jobs is to rebound the basketball.

On Friday night, he pulled down a couple of clutch offensive rebounds in crunchtime and converted them into putback baskets to help Barrington fend off a pesky Hoffman Estates team. Two of Barrington's three fourth-quarter field goals were Keenan's putbacks in a 50-40 victory.

Keenan, who finished with 8 points, got both of his putbacks when Hoffman Estates, which had gotten down by as many as 12 points, had cut its deficit to just 4 points.

"When I'm trying to help my team out, I like to crash the glass and get those big boards," Keenan said.

Barrington, which improves to 14-7 overall, 3-4 in the Mid-Suburban League West and got a team-high 18 points from Mark Johnson as well as 12 points from Aaron Sarkar, outrebounded Hoffman Estates on the boards from start to finish.

"You can't give up 21 offensive rebounds. That's the game," said Hoffman Estates coach Luke Yanule, whose team drops to 6-14 overall and 1-5 in the MSL West. "If you can't control your own glass, you don't deserve to win. We didn't deserve to win. I loved our heart, I loved our comeback, and I loved our grit in cutting a 12-point deficit to 4 points in the fourth quarter. But when you can't control your glass, there's no chance you're going to win."

Hoffman Estates got down by 12 points (30-18) when Barrington opened the third quarter with a 7-0 run.

But Hoffman Estates forced 8 Barrington turnovers over the quarter to claw back in, and ended the quarter down just 4 points (35-31).

Overall, Barrington turned the ball over 20 times against the quick and scrappy Hawks.

"We were disappointed with how little we valued the basketball," Barrington coach Bryan Tucker said. "Their athleticism and defense can speed you up and they had active hands."

But Barrington took better care of the ball in the fourth quarter, and with Keenan's second putback in the period, Hoffman Estates never got closer than 6 points again.

"We just let up," said Hoffman Estates forward Sheldon Barnett-Morales, who poured in a game-high 19 points and was the only Hawk in double-figures.

"We stopped talking as much and let them push the score back up. We've had a couple games like this and we have to learn how to be patient and to work together and push to the win."