Barrie racks up three more wins

The key to last week’s sweep was the team’s defense, which limited all three opponents to 46 or less points.

‘‘That’s been a big key,” Barrie coach Jack Mitchell said. ‘‘We’re primarily going man all the time. It goes back to teaching in practice and going over our drills repeatedly. We’re taking shots away. It’s points they don’t get to gain. We take a lot of pride in it.”

The Mustangs first slapped the clamps on McLean last Tuesday, limiting their opponents to 18 first-half points en route to a 59-46 win. McLean started Barrie on a late three-game slide with its first league win a year ago.

‘‘We want to learn from last year’s mishap,” Mitchell said. ‘‘I’m glad the kids responded.”

Senior guard Eric White knocked down 18 points, including 10 of 12 shooting from the free-throw line, while sophomores Bobby Yancey and Sam Howard added 12 and 10 points, respectively.

Last Thursday, Mitchell faced his former assistant at Ireton, Joe Limarzi, now the head coach at Sandy Spring Friends.

‘‘There is a lot of familiarity,” Mitchell said. ‘‘We only scored 42 points and six of those came in the last minute when he was fouling intentionally. Luckily, we made some big free throws. Joe always has his team ready.”

The Mustangs jumped out to a 9-0 advantage and kept a lead throughout behind the play of sophomore Robert Finkel, who had 13 points and six rebounds. White added nine points and Howard chipped in eight.

Barrie closed the week with a 46-38 win over Covenant Life Saturday, with White dropping in 17 more points, including a pair of three-pointers. Howard and Yancey added nine points apiece.

The Mustangs opened up an 18-2 lead after eight minutes of play and led, 26-12, at halftime.But a lack of focus allowed the Cougars to creep back into the game in the second half.

‘‘You have a tendency sometimes with a young team, you kind of get complacent and hit cruise control when you shouldn’t,” Mitchell said.