Tigers Rain on Barrington's Senior Night Celebration

Visiting Tiverton High School's boys’ basketball team spoiled Barrington’s “Senior Night” celebration Friday.

The Tigers built a 12-point halftime lead and the held off the Eagles in the second stanza to post a critical 64-60 Division II-East victory before a near-capacity crowd.

“Every time Tiverton needed a big stop defensively or a big shot on offense, they got it,” said Barrington Coach Patrick Sullivan. “We didn’t play well in the first half and spotted them a big lead. You can’t do that against good teams.”

Ben Engvall sparked Barrington with 21 points, Cade Jones-Pearson finished with 12, Connor Fiske added 9 points and Tyler Brown chipped in with 8. 

For Tiverton, Gunnar Bjornson poured in a game-high 25 points and Ben Bergandy contributed 22 points, including three key free throws in the closing 30 seconds.

“We gutted out this win because nothing came easy tonight,” Tiverton Coach Jerry Arcouette said. “Our shooting was off, but we found ways to get to the hoop and get to the foul line and I think that was the difference.”

With the loss, Barrington's record dropped to 11-6 opposite divisional rivals and 13-9 on the year. The win was Tiverton's third straight and upped their Division II record to 14-4, which clinched a No. 3 seed for the upcoming Division II State Playoffs, and a berth in the All-State Tournament.

Before the contest, Barrington honored its five senior boys’ basketball players and cheerleader with a brief ceremony featuring them with their parents. At halftime, the school feted the senior members of its Dance Team.

After honoring its five seniors – Fiske, Jones-Pearson, Michael Zimmerman, Alex Spiess and Brown – in the pre-game ceremony, Sullivan started the quintet and they quickly zoomed to an 8-4 lead.

The Eagles still held a 13-10 edge with 11:04 left in the first half when Bergandy, Bjornson and B.K. Kiser ignited a 12-0 burst and a 16-3 spurt – interrupted only by Fiske’s trey – which produced a 26-16 Tiger lead.

Barrington narrowed the deficit to 30-25 late in the first chapter, but Bergandy hit a lay-in, Welchman dropped in two charity tosses and Welchman beat the halftime buzzer with a 40-foot heave to produce the 37-25 advantage for the visitors at intermission.

Barrington netted the first eight points of the second session, only to yield nine unanswered Tiger points for a 46-33 bulge. The gritty Eagles, however, chipped away and narrowed their deficit to two points (48-46) with 8:06 to play and to three points (61-58) with 37 ticks remaining after Jones-Pearson drained a three-point hoop to counter two charity tosses by Caldwell at the 43-second mark.

Bjornson kept Tiverton ahead in the second half with 15 points, while Engvall (10) and Jones-Pearson (9) did the bulk of the offensive damage for Barrington. All five Eagle seniors dented the scoring column.

“I thought we had very good looks at the basket tonight, but didn’t shoot well,” Sullivan said. “We have to find a way to execute better on both ends of the floor.”

Barrington will close out its 2010-11 regular-season schedule Tuesday night at home against Narragansett High in a Division II crossover clash with major implications for its postseason prospects.

“If we beat Narragansett, we’ll finish at 12-6 (in divisional play) and be assured of no worse than a No. 6 seed in the playoffs,” Sullivan said.