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Sports

Fillies' Basketball Players Take Court in All-Star Game

All-star event allows for one last basketball game of season, and high school careers, for two Barrington players.

Season long competitors become friends when Barrington sent two players to participate in the Second Annual Lake County Senior Shootout held at Lake County College.

“I’m friends with everyone now,” Barrington’s Abby Kirchoff said of the event that showcased some of the county’s best players.  “People I wouldn’t really be friends with during basketball season are now like my best friends.”

Kirchoff (MSL West player of the year) and fellow Barrington senior Shelby Whigham spent all season for the Fillies scoring, and guarding, some of the elite talent in the area.  But thankfully, the transition from mutually respected competitors to teammates was seamless as Kirchoff and Whigham helped the West All-Star to victory over the East All-Stars 62-50.

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“The level of talent out here is amazing,” Whigham said following the All-Star challenge.  “Our class is really talented; there is no doubt about that.”

Whigham, an athletic forward who will be playing college basketball at the University of Wisconsin/Whitewater next year, scored 4 points and contributed with 6 rebounds against the East All-Star team that featured three players from Zion and two from Libertyville. 

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Zion-Benton is an all too familiar adversary for the Fillies as it was the Zee-Bees that eliminated Barrington at the sectional championships (41-37 in overtime) before eventually finishing second in the IHSA class 4A finals losing to Bolingbrook.

East was unable to match the offensive cohesiveness that Kirchoff and teammates from the West were able to produce in the opening moments of the game and West never looked back as they managed the 62-50 win.

Kirchoff, who scored five points in the game’s initial frame, helped lead the West to an early 26-12 first quarter lead over East.  Kirchoff would end the game with a respectable 7 points, 2 rebounds and 4 assists in limited action as she shared court time with the other great guards.

“Everyone is really good,” the multitalented Kirchoff said.  “You could pass the ball to anyone here and they can finish.”

Stevenson's Michelle O'Brien led all scorers with 17 points and took home game most valuable player honors.

The all star games were the highlight of the Friday, April 22nd, Lake County Senior Shootout event that also had a co-ed three point contest, an unbelievable entertaining dunk contest from some of the highflying young men that represented the county and a boy's All-Star game.

“This was an awesome event,” Whigham said.  “When I got the call to be apart of it I was really excited.”

“This is a nice event and an opportunity to have some fun at the end of a long season,” Barrington’s coach Babbi Barrerio said.  “This was well deserved for (Kirchoff and Whigham).”

The 2011 Shootout was an exciting end to a great season of high school basketball and provided the players a glimpse of talent that they could expect to face in the near future while playing at college.

“I’m really excited to get back out there,” Whigham said of playing for a college team next year.“

I didn’t want to stop playing,” Kirchoff went on to say of the excitement and prospect of college basketball.  "I want to play again right now."

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