Williams sisters, Fremd ace out Fillies
The Williams sisters were tone-setters for Fremd girls basketball team on Wednesday night.
Midori in the first half and Hayley in the second.
Senior Midori Williams (13 points) hit four of six 3-point attempts in the first half to help stake the Mid-Suburban West champs to a 20-11 lead.
Her twin Hayley then connected for the Vikings' first 5 points (one 3-pointer) of the second half, as they built the lead to 25-11 and never looked back in a 46-28 triumph over No. 18-seeded Barrington in the Fillies' Class 4A regional semifinal.
No. 2 Fremd (24-6) will meet No. 7 Grayslake Central (22-7) at 7 p.m. today for the championship.
"I thought Midori did a real nice job of getting us going," said Fremd coach Dave Yates. "But credit Barrington. They gave it all they had and hung around obviously longer than we wanted. That's a compliment to Babbi (Barreiro, Barrington coach) because her kids fought to the end and went down swinging."
The Fillies cut the 25-11 deficit to to 28-20 by the end of the quarter, thanks to a 3-pointer by senior Claire Collier and a nice spin move for a bank shot by classmate Alex Van Ryne.
A free throw by Van Ryne to start the final quarter got the Fillies to within 7 points but that's as close as they would get.
The Vikings switched to full court pressure and were able to create some turnovers and gradually pulled away.
"We just came together as a team," said Midori Williams. "When we play like that, we are able create offense and it helped us pull away."
"I thought our pressure wore them down some and got us to a point where they were not hanging around anymore," Yates said. "I'm pretty proud of our kids for hanging in there."
Barrington was able to hang around in the first half, thanks to the offense of freshman Taylor Thompson, the only Fillie to score in the game's first 15 minutes.
Midori William's fourth 3-pointer made it 18-7 before 2 free throws by Thompson made it 18-9 with 4:29 left in the first half.
Van Ryne became the second Fillie to score when she hit a right hook shot with 59 seconds left to make it 18-11.
The Vikes increased the lead to 20-11 at intermission as Hayley Williams (7 points) drove through traffic for a layup that just beat the buzzer.
"We've been playing better as a team," Midori added. "We've been practicing hard and we wanted to be ready for the state playoffs."
Senior Grace Tworek also scored 13 points for the Vikings followed by freshman Emily Klaczek (8).
Senior Missy Adrian (4 points) had a big steal and layup off the Vikings' full court press in the final quarter and sophomore Angie Zara hit a free throw in the third quarter which made it 28-18.
For the game, the Vikings were 13-of-30 at the free throw line.
"We can't shoot like that from the free throw line and expect to extend the lead," Yates said. "But it's all about winning and getting to the next round. There are no prizes for how many points you beat someone by.
"And No. 1, Barrington is not an 18th seed. No. 2, playing them on their home floor is not an easy task."
Thompson led the Fillies (5-22) with 11 points while Van Ryne finished with 7 and Claire Collier 6 (two 3-pointers). Tori Meyer hit a pair of buckets in the second half.
"I thought the story of this team all season ws that you could never tell what the score was because they were always playing hard." Barreiro said. "I thought they played together tonight. We just had some fouls at inopportune times and turnovers at key times."
Barrington lost to Fremd 39-33 earlier in the season on the same floor.
"We played them three times and I felt we battled hard for two and half games," Barreiro said.
"Defensively, Fremd certainly made it difficult for us to score. But these kids do not have to hang their heads. This team has been a pleasure to coach since day one."