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Campbell sparks Palatine over Barrington

It's been a tenuous year from Palatine's Julian Campbell.

The two-time all-area boys basketball player has found himself off the court with an nagging foot injury. And with the shortened season, it was difficult for him to showcase himself.

Campbell, who just came back last week from the injury, has played sparingly in the last two games. But the 6-foot-7 senior showed all of his good qualities with a 31-point and 9-rebound performance to help lead the Pirates past Barrington 74-67 in overtime in a Mid-Suburban West game Tuesday in Palatine.

"I was injured for a bit and I just had to get back in the motions," said Campbell, who scored 9 points in the fourth quarter and 7 points in overtime.

"It just took me some time to get back and now I can show what I can do. It means a lot to be back with my team."

Palatine (5-5, 4-4) trailed 57-47 with 5:37 left in regulation. Barrington (8-2, 7-1) was still in control with a 59-50 lead with 4:20 left when Luke Seiffert canned his second 3-pointer of the quarter to get the Pirates going.

"They are good defensive team with a lot of length," said Seiffert, who would finish with 9 points. "It is a struggle for the little guy, but I found myself open and hit my shots."

That started a 9-0 run for the Pirates, who tied the game at 59 with 1:43 left on a free throw by Eric Pecson. The teams traded baskets and Barrington was unable to score on the last shot of regulation to send it into overtime.

Brandon Storm drilled a 3 from the corner and Seiffert would hit a free throw as Palatine went up 65-61.

Barrington got as close as 67-65 on a 3-pointer by Will Grudzinski with 1:01 left in overtime. But a huge 3-point play by Campbell with 52 seconds left gave the Pirates the breathing room they needed to seal the win.

"This is the biggest win of the year for us against a first-place team," Palatine coach Eric Millstone said. "It is a simple game when the kids make plays. Our guys stepped up in the last four minutes of regulation no made some plays."

Palatine got 13 points from Tyler Swiercze, 12 points of the bench from Grant Dersnah while Storm chipped in 6.

Barrington, which is now tied with Fremd for the lead in the MSL West, was led by Grudzinski, who had 19. Daniel Hong scored 17, Damian Zivak 13 and Nate Boldt 12.

"We started out poorly and had some good minutes in the middle but didn't sustain it," Barrington coach Bryan Tucker said. "We let them right back in it and didn't finish."

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