In an effort to raise his program's level of play and visibility, Barrie boys basketball coach Darnell Myers has significantly beefed up his team's non-conference schedule this season.
To wit: Myers entered his team in last weekend's Bullis Holiday Tournament, which is one of the area's better events. While the results in terms of wins and losses weren't what Myers wanted, the overall experience against such squads as Bullis and St. John's-Prospect Hall, sure were.
"This is a good tournament for us," said Myers, whose team lost all three of its games to fall to 10-4 overall. "This was an upscale for our program. It shows we're heading in the right direction and hopefully it helps other kids come to Barrie."
If nothing else, the tough competition will help prepare the team for Potomac Valley Athletic Conference play as the Mustangs probably won't face squads of similar caliber in the league. Barrie has already captured its first five PVAC games.
"This will really help us in the PVAC," Myers said.
The Mustangs finished up last weekend's tournament with a 58-43 loss to Green Hill of Texas in the seventh-place game. The Hornets jumped out to a 22-7 first-quarter lead and never trailed the rest of the way. Green Hill made six 3-pointers in the opening quarter.
Barrie did close the deficit to six, 36-30, with 1:30 left in the third quarter but two straight hoops by Green Hill's Courtney Lefall and David Knowles (20 points) pushed the lead back to 10 by quarter's end. Knowles added 10 more points in the fourth quarter to close out the victory.
Besides a slow start, Barrie was plagued by poor perimeter shooting by Josh Colwell (4 points) and Bobby Sharafeddin (15 points). That inaccurate marksmanship hurt even worse considering the Mustangs couldn't establish any kind of inside game against Green Hill's 2-3 zone. Frank Mason played well, however, pouring in a game-high 24 points.
"We came out flat," Myers said. "We've got some kids on the team who have to grow up. We have a young team."
Barrie opened the tournament Friday with a 64-52 loss to host Bullis, which finished third. The Mustangs were led by Sharafeddin's 16 points. Mason and Colwell added 15 and 13 points apiece, respectively.
Barrie then fell, 55-47, to St. John's-Prospect Hall Saturday. The Mustangs defeated St. John's, 46-38 earlier this season in the Potomac Invitational. Barrie made just 13 of 23 free throws in the game.
Colwell had his best performance of the tournament, knocking down 21 points. Sharafeddin had 10 points.
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