Barrington rolls by Conant, clinches share of MSL West
For the fourth straight year the right to represent the Mid-Suburban League's West Division in the annual MSL championship game will come down to the final night of divisional play when Fremd hosts Barrington.
However, it won't be a winner-take-all game like the past couple of seasons as a result of a Friday night surprise that broke a first-place tie between the two schools.
It happened shortly after Barrington's 43-25 win at Conant when Fremd (8-3, 7-2) dropped a 40-35 decision at Schaumburg, placing the Vikings one game behind the Broncos (9-2, 8-1) entering their Tuesday night battle at Fremd. If Barrington wins, the Broncos will advance next Saturday's MSL title bout on the home floor of the Mid-Suburban East champion. If Fremd beats Barrington on Tuesday, MSL tiebreakers will determine the West champion.
Friday's win also enabled Barrington to earn at least a share of the MSL West crown, its third in the past seven seasons and first since 2018.
"It's a tough game when the kids want to focus on the next game. We're fortunate we've got good kids," Barrington coach Bryan Tucker said. "Every team when they start a season, especially this season when you're only playing conference (games) without a state tournament, you want to put yourself in a position where you try to win your division and play for the overall conference championship. We've put ourselves in a position, but we haven't accomplished it yet."
After surrendering the opening hoop of the game shortly after the 90-second mask break to Cougar forward David Kulig, the Broncos responded with 16 unanswered points that had them never looking back the remainder of the evening.
Six-6 junior swingman Will Grudzinski scored 8 of his game-high 19 points during the decisive run.
Conant (2-9, 1-8) got no closer than 11 points on three separate occasions, the last of which came after a pair of free throws made by 6-7 senior center Sean Beckman that pulled the Cougars within 24-13 of the visitors at the 6:38 mark of the third.
Beckman would lead the Cougars with 11 points and 7 rebounds in the losing effort.
Senior forward Damian Zivak added 10 points and 5 boards for Barrington.
Grudzinski, who added 4 rebounds for the Broncos, paid homage to his 15 teammates on this year's varsity squad for creating a positive culture.
"I would say that the position we're in now is all because of our practices and how hard we work," Grudzinski said. "Everyone works really hard to get each other better and our energy is great."