Girls basketball: Late Bolingbrook rally falls short vs. Barrington in 4A semifinal

NORMAL – A furious rally in the fourth quarter fell just short for the Bolingbrook girls basketball team Friday afternoon in the Class 4A state semifinals at Illinois State University’s Redbird Arena.

The Raiders trailed Barrington by as many as 16 points early in the fourth quarter but rallied to close the gap to three with 1:12 remaining.

Bolingbrook did not score again, however, and Barrington sealed the game with free throws to come away with a 64-55 win.

The loss put the Raiders in the third-place game late Friday against Benet Academy, which dropped a 36-28 decision to Stevenson in the earlier semifinal.

“We just dug ourselves too big a hole,” Bolingbrook coach Chris Smith said. “We have been through some battles this year, and our girls are battle-tested, so I never doubted the fight in these girls. They showed that by getting to within three points in the fourth, but we were in too big a hole to start.”

The Raiders were able to get shots off all game. In fact, they took 66 shots compared to Barrington’s 45 and made 20 field goals compared to 22 for the Fillies. Barrington’s Sophie Swanson went for a game-high 35 points, and teammate Gwen Adler added 10. Laura Mahlum scored nine points for Barrington, as three players accounted for all of their points.

Bolingbrook, meanwhile, got 12 points from Angelina Smith, 11 from Tatiana Thomas, eight from Yahaira Bueno and seven from Kennedi Perkins.

“When we were down by 15, we were determined to come back,” Angelina Smith said. “Sometimes, we have been able to come back from something like that, but they were playing harder and outrebounding us.

“Usually we are the team playing harder than the other team, but we didn’t show that today.”

Thomas scored nine of her 11 points in the fourth quarter, when the Raiders outscored Barrington, 25-19. That, however, was not enough to overcome Barrington’s 21-9 edge in the third quarter that added to a 25-21 halftime lead.

“I wish we would have played the whole game like we did in the fourth quarter,” Thomas said. “We seemed to have more urgency in the fourth quarter, but we needed it earlier.”

All Barrington (30-5) needed was to get the ball to Swanson, a junior who has committed to play for Purdue. She mixed driving to the basket and coming off screens to shoot 3-pointers to lead all scorers with 13 points in the first half, then did the same after halftime to the tune of 22 more points. For good measure, she added nine rebounds and two blocked shots.

When Swanson wasn’t scoring, it was Adler who did the damage. The sophomore hit her first seven shots from the field and finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds.

“We knew Swanson was very active,” Chris Smith said. “We didn’t do a great job of guarding her off the screens. It seemed like she did most of her damage getting the ball off of a screen and creating.

“And we knew that Adler was a good player. We can’t give up 55 points to two players.”

Swanson scored on a fast break to give Barrington a 52-36 lead midway through the fourth quarter before Bueno hit a 3-pointer for the Raiders to start their comeback. Persais Williams followed with a putback basket and, after a free throw by Swanson, Thomas scored back-to-back baskets and Angelina Smith made a pair of free throws after the media break with 3:53 to play, making it 53-47. Thomas made another free throw before Adler answered with a free throw of her own. Another 3-pointer by Bueno pulled Bolingbrook to within 54-51 with 2:50 to play.

Two seconds later, Swanson drained a pair of free throws, and then scored with 1:38 left to put the Fillies ahead, 58-51. Bolingbrook countered with a basket by Miranda Fry and a floater in the lane by Kennedi Perkins to make it 58-55 with 1:12 left, but Bolingbrook did not score again.