With Thursday's difficult 51-49 home loss to second-place Jewish Day (14-7, 11-4 in the PVAC), the Mustangs probably won't win the regular-season Potomac Valley Athletic Conference North Division title. The team's overall play this winter, however, has Barrie primed for a lengthy and successful run in the upcoming PVAC Tournament.

For starters, the Mustangs have one of the league's best trios in Derrick Bell, Frank Mason and Bobby Sharafeddin. All three players average in double figures and have propelled Barrie to an overall record of 14-5 and a league mark of 10-5 (through Monday). Last year, the Mustangs were 12-12 overall, 8-8 in the PVAC.

Bell and Sharafeddin are holdovers from last season's .500 squad. Bell, a 5-foot-8 senior point guard, is averaging 14.5 points per game; Sharafeddin, a junior shooting guard, leads Barrie in scoring, pouring in about 18 points a contest. Mason is a transfer from Good Counsel, who is knocking down 15.8 points a game from his small-forward slot.

"My three kids are hard to beat," Myers said. "They have to step up and know when to take games over and play better defensively. I'm really proud. We won 12 games last year. We're 14-5. That's a big adjustment."

The second reason Barrie could be very dangerous come tournament time is that Mustangs have played every league team down to the wire. Barrie's five losses have come by a combined 18 points, falling to Jewish Day by two and four points, Sandy Spring by five, St. Anselm's by four and Hebrew Academy by three. All four of those teams reside near or at the top of the PVAC standings.

Barrie also proved it can beat the big teams, defeating North Division leader Hebrew Academy two weeks ago on a last second 3-pointer by Sharafeddin.

"Nobody has really blown us out," Myers said. "I know we can play with any team in this league. We need someone to step up and show leadership. If we play to our potential, we'll be hard to beat. [The tournament] is wide open. It all depends on who you get. The league is very, very competitive."

Barrie had a chance to win or at least tie Thursday's contest with Jewish Day in the closing seconds. Mason missed two free throws late in the fourth quarter that would have given the Mustangs the lead. Down two points, Sharafeddin missed two charity shots, the second intentionally, in the final three seconds to seal the Jewish Day victory. For the quarter, Barrie missed 9 free throws while the Lions made 4 of 8.

"Free throws down the stretch killed us," Myers said. "I don't think we played well at all. They outhustled us to loose balls."

Besides those missed free throws, Mason had a solid offensive performance for Barrie, putting in a game-high 23 points. Sharafeddin was held to 11 points by Jewish Day senior forward Nathan Bortnick. Bell had just 5 points in the loss.

That loss kept Barrie in a tie for third place with Covenant Life and it propelled Jewish Day into sole possession of second place in the North Division. The top two seeds receive byes in the PVAC Tournament.

Barrie was to conclude its season Tuesday against Washington Waldorf.