Palatine traveled to rival Barrington Friday night to close out their conference schedule for the season. After dropping four straight, the Pirates redeemed themselves by completely out playing the Broncos.

After the first half, the Pirates had a 22-19 lead going into the break. Palatine jumped out of the gates to start the half and started breaking away from the Broncos.

“Jovone [Stricker] is a tough kid,” said Palatine head coach Eric Millstone. “He’s a leader. He had a nice game tonight, and I’m glad to see that because it validates just what kind of a player he is.”

Senior Stricker had a stellar second half for the visitors. Stricker, who didn’t score in the first half, came out of the locker room looking to change that. Following a huge buzzer beating three at the end of the third, the captain found himself with seven points, and he wasn’t done.

After his buzzer beater gave Palatine (16-12, 5-5) a little breathing room heading into the final quarter, Stricker was able to score ten more points to help the Pirates seal a 56-42 victory. Senior Matt Ulrich contributed with 8 points of his own and sophomore Johnny O’Shea added on 12.

A big contributing factor to the win for the Pirates was their post defense. Facing a larger Barrington team didn’t faze O’Shea and senior Matthew Mayer. Barrington’s big men, Ethan Small (12 points) and Will Reinhard (16 points), weren’t able to get their points easily.

“They are a good, big, physical team,” Millstone said. “We felt that defense inside was the key. We were able to get the advantage tonight, but if we played them a few more times, who knows what the outcome would be?”

Palatine led the entire way, out-working and out-toughing their larger opponents, and coming out with a hard fought, well earned win in the closing conference game of the season.

Palatine takes on Hersey on Tuesday for their last regular season game of the year.