Fremd freezes Barrington offense

Fremd's defense delivered in a manner similar to Mother Nature on Tuesday night.

Both kept things in the single digits.

While temperatures were below 10 degrees, the Vikings limited Barrington to single-digit scoring in three of the four quarters en route to a 59-32 victory in the Mid-Suburban West girls basketball game.

The victory put the Vikings at 4-0 in the West, tied with Schaumburg. The two teams meet on the Saxons' floor on Friday night.

Fremd (16-2 overall) was coming off only its second loss of the season, a 61-57 defeat to the No. 1 ranked team in Class 3A, Morgan Park.

"That loss definitely motivated us," said junior forward Grace Tworek who scored 11 points (9-of-10 free throws). "We had a good practice on Monday and were really ready to come and give a 100 percent effort. We wanted to come out strong."

Mission accomplished as the Vikes raced to an 18-3 lead with Erin Lenahan (7 points, 2 assists), Brianna Lewis (11 points, 5 steals, 2 assists), Bryana Hopkins (11 points, 7 rebounds, 4 steals), Missy Adrian (4 points), and Midori Williams (2 points) all contributing points in the first eight minutes.

Over the middle quarters, the two teams each scored 17 points before Fremd dashed clear in the final period outscoring Barrington 24-7.

"I thought we got off to a good start, and we had a good finish," said Vikings coach Dave Yates. "Those were the positives. But we need to play more consistently. That's something we will continue to work on."

Tworek worked hard at both ends of the floor collecting 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 blocked shots.

"I thought Grace Tworek had a very nice game for Fremd," said Barrington coach Babbi Barreiro of the Harvard recruit. "She was very effective at both ends of the floor."

Hayley Williams and Lauren Glaser each pulled down 3 rebounds for Fremd. Amanda McCartney (5 points) had 2 rebounds and Julie Wacker a blocked shot. Jenna Simios and Anna LaValle each scored buckets in the final quarter.

Barreiro received some key performances that helped the Fillies (6-11, 2-2) keep things close in the middle quarters.

"I thought Alex Van Ryne had a gutsy performance and Auri Grayson played extremely passionate and made a lot of good things happen for us," Barreiro said. "And Kelly Katis did some nice things for us."

Katis had a 3-pointer and finished with 9 points and 5 steals while Grayson (3 rebounds, 2 steals) and Van Ryne (4 rebounds) each chipped in 7 points.

"Obviously, Fremd is a good team and I thought for the first three quarters we did a good job defensively on them," Barreiro said. "I thought we played them pretty even in second and third quarters. But we shot poorly in the first quarter and turned the ball over too much in the fourth (27 turnovers for the game)."

The Vikings were able to pull away in the fourth quarter with a 19-1 run that included 6-of-6 free throws from Tworek, 3 from Lewis and 2 apiece from Hopkins and Lenahan.