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Fillies Win is a Nice Gift for Coach and Packed Gym

Second-half burst by Nicole Collins gives Barrington first conference win.

There were a couple of reasons why "Pack the Gym Night" was a great success on Friday, Dec. 9, one of which was Barrington’s 48-41 win over Conant.

“We were very happy with our ‘Pack the Gym Night’ turnout last night, and it was great to see so many of Barrington's young basketball players turning out to support the older girls,” said Sheila Callanan, the event's organizer. “There was great excitement when our sophomore team won in overtime on a buzzer-beating shot. This set up the crowd for an exciting varsity win.”

“Thank you to the WNBA’s Chicago Sky and their mascot, Sky Guy, for helping make this year's ‘Pack the Gym Night" such a success,” she added.

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With all the basketball fans and a mascot acting like a clown, it was only fitting that the event conveniently doubled as a very large birthday party for Barrington varsity coach Babbi Barreiro, who received a nice gift in the form of the team’s first Mid-Suburban League West win of the season.

“I’ll take this gift any day of the week,” said a celebrating Barreiro after Barrington’s conference victory over the Cougars.

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“The kids had good energy tonight,” she went on to say. “I thought we played with good tempo.”

The Fillies (5-4, 1-1), which never trailed in the game and was tied only once at 4, used that energy to spark a 9-4 run to end the first quarter up 13-8. The run started with a rebound and put-back by junior Alexa Resch, who ended the evening with 5 points and five rebounds.

After starting the second half with a 23-15 advantage over the Cougars, Collins began a stretch of play that saw her score 11 in the third quarter and 17 in the second half. 

 “Collins was just dynamite tonight,” Barreiro said. “She was a true leader on the floor for her team and kept the team focused on what we needed to be doing.”

“Offensively, she just took the game over,” she went on to say of the 5-foot-8-inch guard. “She is capable of taking a game over any night.”

The senior led all scorers with 23 points, but it was her effort on both ends of the court (four rebounds three steals and two assists) that helped stretch the Fillies lead to as much as 17 during the fourth quarter.

“Our defense is the most important thing; it creates points for our offense, and that’s what we have been working on,” Collins said about the team’s more than dozen steals.

However, Conant (4-6, 1-1) was able to use three consecutive series of successful three-pointers from sophomore guard Sarah Mazurek (11 points total) to trim Barrington’s lead late in the fourth quarter. Cougars senior forward Natalie Kutrumanes added 14 points, and her basket on a missed free throw with a little more than a minute left cut Barrington’s lead to less than 10 points.

“We had some defensive mishaps and that led to some open looks,” said Barreiro of Conant’s late run. 

But moments later, Barrington sophomore guard Angie Kirchoff hit successful free throws that essentially ended any hopes for Conant’s late rally and pushed the margin back to 10. Kirchoff ended the game with 5 points.

Barrington has alternated wins and loses all season long, but hopes to end that trend by starting a winning streak with a victory over nonconference Vernon Hills at 7 p.m., Tuesday.

“We knew coming into this season we had some inexperience,” Barreiro said of her team that really only has Collins with extensive floor experience from last year’s sectional semifinals team. “But these girls are finding their way and every game they are learning.”

“We are going to put a stretch (of wins) together here soon,” she said.

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