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Scouting Fremd vs. Barrington

Class 3A Mundelein sectional semifinal

When: 7:30 p.m. today

Who: No. 2 seed Fremd (25-6) vs. No. 6 Barrington (20-11).

How they advanced: Fremd defeated No. 7 Buffalo Grove 49-46 to win the Buffalo Grove regional; Barrington defeated No. 3 Stevenson 60-48 to win the Grant regional

At stake: Winner advances to Thursday’s 7:30 p.m. championship

Previous meetings: In the team’s final conference match of the season in Palatine, Fremd defeated Barrington 48-38 to win the Mid-Suburban West by two games over the Fillies. Senior Megan Gray led Fremd with 13 points in that game while senior Abby Kirchoff led Barrington with 12 points. Fillies senior and four-year starter Shelby Whigham did not play because of an ankle injury suffered against Hoffman Estates in her previous game. Fremd and Barrington also met to begin MSL West play in December. The visiting Vikes won that game 54-42 with Jaimie Groot’s 15 points leading the way, followed by Jessi Wiedemann’s 14. Kirchoff again led Barrington with 15 points.

Fremd’s cast: The starting five of sophomore Ashley McConnell, junior Jessi Wiedemann, senior Jaimie Groot, senior Megan Gray and senior Bridget Kubis average between 13 and 6 points.

Seniors Sarah Power and Megan Horn and sophomore Carrie Wagner have been key reserves.

Barrington’s cast: MSL West player of the year Abby Kirchoff (5-foot-11 senior) has joined Shelby Whigham (5-11 senior), Sarah Mass (5-8 senior), Brooke Chandor (5-11 senior) and Nicole Collins (5-6 junior) in the starting lineup, while Kiersten Tinkoff (5-10 senior) Lizzie Deuel (5-7 senior) and Sam Maasarani (5-6 senior) have been top players off the bench. Chandor is once again questionable after injuring her shoulder in each of the Fillies’ last two games — but she still made solid contributions.

What Fillies coach Babbi Barreiro says: “We have to play four good quarters of basketball. In both games we played Fremd, we had a letdown in one or more quarters and you can’t do that against a good team. Our kids are understanding their roles so we must make sure to stick to our game plan and execute. We know Fremd is balanced, too. No. 33 (Wiedemann) and 44 (Gray) are a little taller but other than that we’re pretty even in height.”

What Fremd coach Dave Yates is saying: “One good thing for our girls is that they all watched Barrington’s game last Friday night so they know they are playing real well. I think our girls would say that in our last two games against Barrington, they did not play as well as they wanted. Our kids respect Barrington a lot. We expect a battle. There were moments last week where we did nice things, but I told the girls I think we can play better. We didn’t finish that Buffalo Grove game very well, and that’s something we’re looking to improve on.”

The history: Fremd has won 17 regional crowns, 16 under former Hall of Fame coach Carol Plodzien, who also won five sectionals, the last in 2001. Yates has guided the Vikes to their first regional since 2003. Yates’ Vikings also won the school’s first MSL championship since Plodzien guided the team to four straight from 2001 to 2004 and a record 11 total.

Barrington is making its 12th sectional appearance and ninth under Barreiro, who won the school’s only sectional crown in 2001. The Fillies also played in a sectional last season, falling 49-37 to Hersey in the championship game at Libertyville High School.

Barreiro was honored before this year’s MSL title game for winning her 300th game this season. Schaumburg coach Ashley Berggren, a former all-stater for Barreiro, presented her former high school coach with flowers before this year’s title game to acknowledge the milestone win. Barreiro won an MSL crown in 1995.

  Fremd’s Megan Gray, right, had 13 points in the Vikings’ recent victory over Barrington. Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com