Boys Basketball

Boys basketball: Barrington tops Dundee-Crown on senior night

BARRINGTON – Barrington’s Tyler Groom talked about how important it was to get a win Saturday night versus Dundee-Crown on senior night.

“This means a lot,” said Groom, one of the 11 seniors on the Broncos varsity roster. “I’ve been here four years with all the boys, and I’ve been doing this my whole life. Basketball is everything.”

Groom was one of the starting five against the visiting Chargers and he, along with classmates Christian Katris, Jack Trent, William Dowell and Gavin Tepas, led Barrington to a 46-32 nonconference victory.

Groom, Katris, Trent, Dowell and Tepas started the game, and were replaced a couple of minutes in by another wave of five Broncos seniors.

“Starting and winning is a great combination for success,” said Groom, who will move on in the fall to Butler University, where he’ll study marketing and business.

“This victory made everyone happy. I didn’t think that I would be in the starting lineup tonight, and it was a great surprise.”

A layup at the first-quarter buzzer by Barrington senior Will Grudzinski, a 6-foot-6 forward, gave Barrington an early 9-7 lead.

But Dundee-Crown hung tough and in the second quarter, Chargers sophomore guard Zach Randl led a strong defensive effort that saw the visitors take a 16-13 halftime lead.

D-C held the Broncos to just four points in the second quarter.

“We came out a little slow,” Groom said, “then we had to fight back. We had to do what we needed to do to get the win.”

“We were playing a really talented team,” Barrington coach Bryan Tucker said. “Our kids did a nice job. We wound up getting contributions from everybody. The guys responded well.”

The Chargers kept the pressure on right after halftime.

Senior guard Gabe Rivera opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer, teammate Zach Ryza had a drive and layup, and D-C opened up a 21-13 lead midway through the stanza.

Then the Broncos (18-4) went on a 17-2 run, and it was led by Grudzinski, who finished with a game-high 25 points.

Grudzinski started the rally with a 3-pointer, then senior guard Daniel Hong added a 10-footer in traffic.

The Broncos were playing great defense as well, and when Grudzinski added another 3 at the end of the quarter, the advantage stood at 30-23.

Tyler Di Silvio opened the fourth quarter with a 3 for D-C, but Grudzinski scored 10 points in the final period to help put the game away.

Hong and another senior, Evan Jno-Baptiste, hit clutch free throws down the stretch to keep the Chargers at bay.

Jason Huber led D-C with seven points. Nick Bordenet, another member of the Barrington senior class, had eight points, while classmates Nate Boldt (2 points, 5 boards), and William Stoettner also contributed to the win.

Hong finished the evening with seven points and also led the way on the glass with senior rebounds.

“It’s great to get a win any night,” Tucker said, “but it’s something special to get a win on senior night. This is something the guys can look back on and always remember.”