With its 69-51 victory over St. Anselms Saturday night, the Mustangs (16-8) found themselves in first place of the Potomac Valley Athletic Conference standings with a perfect 11-0 mark.

That puts them on pace to duplicate last year's 16-0 record that gave Barrie its first PVAC regular-season title. It went on to capture the league's tournament crown as well.

The team has used the same formula for success en route to those 11 wins, playing a challenging non-conference schedule that more than prepares it for the league schedule. Barrie has played in the Bullis Holiday Tournament, the Gaithersburg Lions Fight for Sight Holiday Classic at Quince Orchard High School and against Montrose Christian (12-1) and Riverdale Baptist

(15-5).

After playing against that level of competition, the Mustangs were more than ready to face whatever PVAC opponents could throw at them.

"We play tough competition," said Barrie coach Darnell Myers, whose squad fell to nationally ranked Montrose Christian, 79-43, Thursday. "We played Riverdale Baptist the other night and we had them up one at the end of three quarters [before injury and disqualifications pushed the Crusaders to victory]. Overall, it helps us get ready for our league."

Barrie's league run is even more impressive considering the team's top player, Josh Colwell, is not allowed to play in PVAC games because he's already competed in four varsity seasons, three of which were at the Newport School.

Stepping in to fill those missing points and rebounds have been senior point guard D.J. Brooks, freshman guard Jamaal Fermin, junior forward Brandon Wilkerson and senior center Phil Masone.

Wilkerson scored a game-high 20 points in the St. Anselms win with Masone and Brooks contributing 13 and 11 points apiece.

"When all of those guys are playing well together, we're pretty tough [but] I'm not going to say we're going to do what we did last year because there are still too many good teams," Myers said.

Colwell poured in 18 points in the Montrose loss. Masone contributed nine points.