In postseason form, Barrington routs Prospect for MSL title
With a convincing 51-28 triumph over visiting Prospect on Wednesday night, the Mid-Suburban League girls basketball championship plaque is back at Barrington High School.
"It's been a long time since we've gotten one," said Fillies senior Laura Mahlum, who sure helped make it happen with her 21-point, 11-rebound performance in the 49th annual showcase event. "This has literally been one of our goals since my freshman year. To see it all come together after working so hard all season makes it really amazing that we finally pulled it off. To do it for her (coach Babbi Barreiro) is awesome and just amazing."
The hall of famer Barriero, now in her 29th season, won her first MSL crown in her second season (1995) and has coached in six title games.
"I'm just so proud of these kids," she said. "What I love about them is that they play so hard and on any given night there's a different kid who steps up and Laura Mahlum was sure tremendous tonight."
"It just happened to be my night," said the modest Mahlum, who will play at Illinois Wesleyan. "I feel we really looked for everyone and the fact that everyone scored shows it's truly a team win."
Sophie Swanson (11 points, 7 rebounds), Molly O'Riordan (10 points, 8 rebounds) and Gwen Adler (7 points, 13 rebounds) helped pave the way for West champion Barrington (24-5). Gracie Stagnito had a big steal and layup in the third quarter.
"Sophie is nursing a hip flexor so she has been limited in practice," Barreiro said. "We got a lot out of her tonight. But other kids picked up the pieces. I thought we did a nice job defensively taking them out of some things they like to do. And I thought we definitely controlled the boards, which was one of our goals."
Two 3-pointers by Jessica Reizer (12 points, 3 3-pointers) helped stake Prospect (21-7) to an 8-2 lead halfway through the first quarter. But the Fillies answered with a driving layup by Swanson and back-to-back 3-pointers by Mahlum and O'Riordan to grab a 10-8 lead. Cameran Mather's putback 10-footer tied it 10-10 after one quarter.
A short bank shot by Summer Srodulski got Prospect to within 15-14 with 2:45 left in the half but Barrington pulled away with a 10-0 run. It started with a 3-pointer by Mahlum, steal and layup (3-point play) by Swanson, layup by O'Riordan off a nifty rifle pass from Mahlum and a driving layup by Adler that made it 25-14 with 31 seconds left.
The Fillies extended the lead in the third quarter as Mahlum exploded for 9 points in the final 3:03. Her 3-pointer with 10 seconds left capped an 11-0 run that made it 42-23 and the hosts never looked back.
"Barrington is a good team," said Prospect coach Matt Weber. "We knew we had to execute at both ends of the floor. I thought our girls really fought defensively but they (Barrington) did a good job getting the ball inside. Credit them for the easy buckets. "Our girls fought and worked hard to get to this game. We've just got to learn from this because in our next few games we will be playing a lot of good teams and we still have some goals to accomplish."
"Prospect has had a great season," said Barriero, whose club defeated the Knights 55-39 on Jan. 13 in Mount Prospect. "Defensively they are always tough and we knew it would be a battle."
Prior to the game, retiring AD Mike Obsuszt was honored for his 19 years at the helm of the Barrington athletic department.