Lewis, Fremd pass up Buffalo Grove

Fremd's girls basketball team was back home playing in Illinois on Tuesday night.

"It's nice to be home, but the weather was way better (in Naples, Fla. where the Vikings won two of three games last week)," said Vikings senior guard Brianna Lewis. "I kind of miss it but I'm happy to be home."

Lewis made her teammates feel right at home, too, with her pinpoint passes for easy buckets.

She was at her best in the fourth quarter, getting 3 of her 6 assists in helping the Vikings pull away to a 54-37 victory at Buffalo Grove.

Fremd (15-1) led 33-23 going after three quarters but enjoyed its best offensive production in final period.

Lewis made a sneaky pass inside to classmate Bryana Hopkins, who was in great position under the basket and tossed in the layup for a commanding 46-29 lead. Seconds later, Hopkins made a pair of free throws before Lewis found Grace Tworek with another nifty pass for a layup and 50-29 cushion.

"When you see something isn't working, you try something different and that's what I did," said Lewis. "A lot of our girls were getting good shots, and then everything started flowing."

Tworek (8 points) came right back with a steal and layup which capped a 19-6 run and gave Fremd a 52-49 lead with under two minutes left in the game.

Hopkins scored 8 points in each half to finish with a game-high 16 points.

She was followed by Amanda McCartney 9 points (three 3-pointers), Erin Lenahan (7), Hayley Williams (5), Julia Wacker (3) and Jenna Simios (2), who scored on a putback for Fremd's final points.

"It was a really fun and cool experience in Florida," Hopkins said. "Just like last year when we went to Arizona, it helped prepare us for the rest of the season. We knew Buffalo Grove had some good shooters and we had to stick to them to get the job done."

Vikes coach Dave Yates credited Lewis, Lauren Glaser and Lenahan with defending BG's top scorers, Sammy Stejskal (6 points) and Maddie Welter (2).

"They (Welter and Stejskal) are two really good basketball players," he said. "They can beat you so many different ways. And the key four us is that the rest of our girls understand what we were doing on defense and how to help out."

Senior Natalie Dimitrova scored all of BG's points until a well-defended Welter lofted a 17-footer from behind the free throw line with 5:55 left in the second quarter to get BG to within 13-7.

The Bison never got closer but hung around with solid defense in the middle quarters.

"We executed our game plan for three quarters," said BG coach Steve Kolodziej, whose club (11-4) returns to action on Saturday for a Mid-Suburban League first-place showdown at Rolling Meadows. "But their length and defensive pressure got to us in the fourth quarter.

"If we had knocked down a few shots in the first few minutes, I think it could have been a different game. We had a chance to get the momentum but we didn't get it."

Dimitrova led the Bison 12 points, including a 3-pointer in the third quarter.

"I thought Natalie played really well," Kolodziej said. "She responded to the challenge of their bigs. She rose to the occasion."

Megan Gamber (6 points) added a pair of 3-pointers for BG while Amanda Kowalski and Georgette Topalis each chipped in 4 points.

The Bison were 12-for-39 from the field (3-of-15 from 3-point range), their second-lowest shooting percentage of the season.

"We didn't shoot very well but credit to their defense," Kolodziej said. "Like us, Fremd is a program that takes pride on the defensive side of the floor.

"This was a good litmus test for us, a good measuring stick to see what kind of team we are and what we need to get better at. And I'm confident that the kid will."

Yates likes the confidence Lewis shows running the offense.

"Brianna made some amazing assists," he said. "She played really well in Florida and that carried over to this game."

He said defense was the key Tuesday.

"We need defense because we weren't at our best offensively," Yates added. "We weren't quite in synch in the middle quarters. We talked about that after the third quarter. W e said we have to focus on the things we have to do on offense and I thought the kids did a nice job at that."

Yates thinks his players learned a lot about themselves in Naples.

"We had to face some tough teams there and for once, we weren't the tallest team," he said. "We had to figure out ways to win close games which I think is good for us in the future."