Barrington accelerates past Dundee-Crown
Barrington got the tune-up it wanted in the Class 4A boys basketball regional at Rolling Meadows on Tuesday.
With a balanced offense and a stingy defense, the top-seeded Broncos motored past their first postseason test, topping No. 17 Dundee-Crown 60-37.
Barrington (23-6) will meet Conant in Friday's sectional final at 7 p.m.
Dundee-Crown had no answer for the height and length of Barrington, especially the Broncos' Rapolas Ivanauskas, who finished with 16 points, 15 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 assists and 2 dunks.
"We really wanted to make a statement in the first couple of minutes," Ivanauskas said. "We are the No. 1 seed and we wanted to show that we deserved it."
Barrington did just that.
After surrendering the first basket of the game to the Chargers, Barrington turned on the jets. The Broncos squeezed Dundee-Crown on the next 10 possessions, forcing 6 turnovers and 5 missed shots.
On the offensive end, Ivanauskas and Scott Bennett did most of the work. Ivanauskas had 8 points, dominating the offensive boards while Bennet drilled a pair of 3s as Barrington jumped to a 14-2 advantage.
"We got off to a great start," Barrington coach Bryan Tucker said, "Defensively, we did a real nice job there."
With all the focus on the inside, Bennett couldn't believe how open he was.
"Nobody was guarding me the first two shots," said Bennett, who finished with 12 points. "So I just took them and hit my shots."
Barrington continued the onslaught in the first half, keeping the Chargers away from the basket and off the scoreboard as the Broncos built a 29-11 halftime advantage.
"We felt that there were two baskets that the ball just bounced their way to an open man," Tucker said. "Otherwise we could have held them under 10."
Dundee-Crown (7-21) found its offense in the second half thanks to the okay of Kiwaun Seals, who finished with 14 points, and Sam Buckely, who had 9 points. The Chargers got as close as 31-18, but Barrington strung together a 12-1 spurt to put the game away.
"Obviously that is not the way you want to start a game," Dundee-Crown coach Lance Huber said. "I thought our kids competed a lot better in the second half.
"I think maybe we were a bit intimidated with their size in the first half, which you can see why."
Barrington was able to get all of its players on the court and get extra time for Will Reinhard, who sprained his ankle 11 days ago, and Ben Weber, who recently had an appendectomy. Reinhard came off the bench to score 8 points, while Weber nailed a key 3-pointer.
"It was really nice to get back in the swing of things," Reinhard said. "It was great to work on my cohesion with the team and build as a unit."
Chris Lester had 10 points and 6 rebounds for the Broncos while Tristen Becker chipped in 6 points.