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player ready...Throughout the first half of a Dec. 26 game between Barrington and Bartlett at the Hinkle Holiday Classic in Algonquin, spectators could hear Bartlett coach James Wolfsmith imploring his team to cover No. 34.
No. 34 is sophomore Jason Boock, who scored a career-high 27 points in the Broncos’ 78-71 loss. Along the way, Boock hit four first-half 3-pointers and finished 5-for-6 in the game as he led Barrington’s rally from a 23-11 first-half deficit to a 40-38 halftime lead.
“He’s too good a shooter to leave open,” Wolfsmith said. “We talked about it before the game. We talked about it at halftime. We talked about it during timeouts.”
Barrington (9-4 as of Tuesday) finished 3-2 in the 16-team tournament. In the final game of the tournament, the Broncos knocked off Rockford Jefferson 56-48. Boock had 16 points in the contest and was 4-for-5 from beyond the arc.
“I’ve always been a shooter,” Boock said, “since I was 8 or 9.”
He concluded the five-game stretch with 15 three-pointers, the second-most in the tournament. He leads the Broncos with 29 for the season and is shooting a stellar 44 percent from long distance while averaging 12.4 points per game.
“He can definitely shoot the basketball,” Barrington coach Bryan Tucker said. “But he’s doing a lot more than that. He makes the right pass. He’s really working hard on the defensive end, working hard to box out, a complete player who is starting to understand so much.”
Not bad for someone who is playing his first varsity season after being on the freshman team last year.
“It’s only 12 games into his varsity career, and he’s making great strides,” Tucker said.
His teammates are certainly appreciative of what Boock can contribute beyond his scoring.
“He spreads the defense out, creates a lot of driving lanes for everyone,” said Barrington junior guard Anthony Spann, who scored 25 in the Bartlett game.
Spann, who is Boock’s shooting partner in practice, said that the upperclassmen try and help Boock out as much as possible.
Boock said he’s been concentrating most on his defense. He said it’s an area where he struggled on the freshman squad. He’s also trying to create more shots for his teammates.
He has one other area of concern.
“I can’t just be shooting 3s,” he said.
Boock showed his improvement in that area late in the third quarter of the Bartlett game, right after Wolfsmith called a timeout to set up a defense specifically designed to stop Boock from shooting from long distance. Boock got the ball in the corner, and a Bartlett defender was overplaying him. Boock faked a 3-pointer, then drove past him along the baseline for a layup.
But shooting to Boock will always take precedence.
“On Sundays, we get the day off from practice” Boock said. “But most Sundays I go to the gym and work on my shots.”
Mark Perlman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
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