Barrington Ends Stevenson's Season

Maybe Tom Dineen said it best. The head girls basketball coach admitted his program got plenty of mileage out of the seniors in two seasons.

And now comes the goodbyes to the likes of Michelle O'Brien, Anna Morrissey, Ashley Niedermayer, McKinley Imus and Micaela Miller.

Stevenson (21-9) never led on Friday night at the Grant Regional title game. Barrington led start to finish and ended the Patriots' season 60-48.

"I really didn't have a speech ready,'' Dineen admitted. "Barrington was much more aggressive than we were. They beat us. There is no question about that."

Stevenson had already beaten the Fillies early in the campaign and based on its third seed in the Mundelein Sectional, seemed to be the favorite heading into this game in Fox Lake. However, the Fillies landed some early three-pointers and opened a quick 6-0 lead.

It seemed clear early that Barrington's plan to was to slow down Stevenson's top scorers. At halftime with Barrington up 21-17, O'Brien had three points and Morrissey had two.

"They defended Anna and [O'Brien] well,'' Dineen said. "And if we don't get 25 points from the two of them we don't usually win."

O'Brien did reach double figures with 11 points. Morrissey fouled out with six points. The Pats would have been further behind without the fine play of Imus. Aided by nine straight free throws, this senior collected 17 points.

"Imus had an outstanding game,'' Dineen said. "She kept us in this thing. McKinley really stepped up for us."

Seemingly still in the contest at halftime, the Pats watched as Barrington scored 15 points in the third quarter. The Pats trailed 36-26 heading to the fourth quarter. The final quarter of the year was basically a free-throw shooting contest. There were 35 free throw attempts.

Both Niedermayer and Kari Moffat added five points each to the Pats' attack. Sophomore Alex Elzinga gave the team four points off the bench.

Dineen did not express any disappointment with his senior class.

"Those five seniors were great examples to our program,'' he said. "Our seniors went out playing hard. We played nine teams that were state ranked this year."

Dineen is already looking ahead to next year. He reported both the sophomore and freshman teams either won or tied for the division title. Point guard Moffat should return for his junior year. Also expected back are Julia Dabrowski, Hayley Arenson, Olivia Whalen and Elzinga.

Another potential returner is still alive in the IHSA statewide three-point shooting contest. Junior Katie Batman heads to Tuesday's Mundelein Sectional.