Barrington comes back to beat Palatine
It was a small start and a big finish for Barrington.
The Broncos fell behind early, but used its size and length to stretch out a 57-50 Mid-Suburban West boys basketball win over Palatine Friday in Barrington.
"They are a tough scrappy team and came out and took it to us," Barrington coach Bryan Tucker said. "We realize we have some tough matchups and some guys with some size and skill."
Palatine broke out to an early 12-2 lead thanks to the play of Tyler Swierczak (19 points, 8 rebounds) and Luke Seiffert (12 points). The Pirates (1-2, 1-2) had their lead bulge at 16-5 on a rebound basket by Grant Dersnah.
That's when Barrington's bigs began to take over.
The Broncos' 6-foot-6 Will Grudzinski, 6-8 Nate Boldt and 6-5 Damian Zivak began to give the Pirates fits on both ends of the court.
With that aggressive play, Barrington was able to rally. The Broncos forced 10 turnovers and Palatine had 10 fouls which led to 11 free throws as Barrington closed to 26-24 at the half.
"We felt that we were lucky to be hanging around," Tucker said. "We thought we had to flax and be aggressive."
Barrington (3-0, 3-0) opened the second half with 6-0 run on its way to a 15-5 spurt and 39-31 lead with 3:10 left in the first half.
"In the first half, coach Tucker wasn't happy," said Boldt, a junior who had 6 of his 12 points during that span and also finished with 9 rebounds.
"Our first half wasn't the best. But we came out in the second half and played our game, moved the ball and played good defense."
Grudzinski, who finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds while knocking down a trio of 3-pointers, said that the Broncos had plenty of energy in the second half.
"It was really our energy that helped us get through it," said Grudzinski, who is a senior. "We could have let this get to us, but we can't control all the shots, but we can control our energy and talking on the floor. We pick each other up."
Evan Jean-Baptiste has 9 points for the Broncos while Zivak had 8 points and 7 rebounds.
Palatine was missing 6-7 Julian Campbell for the third game this season. Campbell is expected back from a foot injury next week.
Palatine coach Eric Millstone said that his team wore down.
"We got off to a good start, but a good team answered," Millstone said. "They got good length and they have good bounce they kind of wore us down in the second half with the things they do well."