Barrington leaves Schaumburg in a 'Funk'

It'll be quite a climate change for Barrington guard Allison Funk come next fall.

She plans to escape the type of cold, inclement weather we all experienced Friday night and enroll at the University of Arizona, where she'll major in elementary education with a focus on bilingual.

For now, though, the senior is heating things up on the basketball court.

Funk came off the bench at Schaumburg in the second period to score 5 quick points, and her energy on the defensive end helped spark the Fillies to a 61-42 Mid-Suburban West girls basketball victory over the Saxons.

"Allison has been doing a lot more scoring for us lately, which is wonderful," said Fillies coach Babbi Barreiro. "She's always been a nice defensive player and she did some good things out there tonight.

"She's been really effective for us, and that's what being on a team is all about, everybody coming in and doing their job and playing their roles. Allison is doing a great job for us."

Funk finished with 10 points.

"I love contributing to the team, even though I'm not out there at the start of the game," she said. "We all worked together tonight. We had really diverse scoring, and everyone was out there working their hardest.

"Defense has always been a focus for me," added the 4-year varsity standout, "but recently I've been trying to concentrate on the offensive side too. We knew coming in here that Schaumburg is a good team, and that made us work even harder this week in practice, to make sure we were ready for tonight."

Schaumburg senior Alyssa Orozco scored 9 points in the second quarter to fuel a Saxons rally, and the home team trailed by only 4 at halftime.

Then in the third quarter a flurry of Barrington points ending with a 3-pointer from Funk gave the Fillies a 42-33 lead, and in the fourth, 6-foot sophomore Molly O'Riordan stepped up for the visitors.

O'Riordan scored 8 of her 14 points in the final stanza, leading the Fillies to a 9-0 run that broke the game open. She was 6-of-6 from the line in the final 8 minutes.

"We went inside a little more to Molly late in the game," said Barreiro. " The kids did a good job of finding her, and she did a good job of holding her ground and her position, and finishing around the basket."

"Molly did a great job of keeping her composure," added Funk of teammate O'Riordan, who was strong on the boards with 8 rebounds.

"She was able to make her free throws at a vital moment in the game."

Orozco scored a game-high 15 points for the Saxons, while sophomore Jada Branch added 8 points.

It was an evening of balanced scoring for the Fillies, as Sophie Swanson matched O'Riordan with 14 points, Jessica McMillin scored 13 and Gwen Adler added 7.

"Schaumburg did a good job early of taking us out of our offensive rhythm, " said Barreiro, "but we did a better job of finding it in the second half. Defensively tonight, I thought we played a really nice game. Once we settled down we were much more effective and that was the difference. I was extremely proud of the way the kids played in the fourth quarter."