Fremd, Maine West in Elite Eight
The final two Cook County girls basketball teams playing in the Class 4A state tourney on Monday night are not exactly strangers at this level of competition.
Maine West is appearing in its 11th supersectional and Fremd in its eighth.
The Vikings (27-6) find themselves in a rematch with Rockford Boylan (31-1) at Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville while Maine West (27-3) meets Geneva (26-4) for the first time at Addison Trail High School in Addison.
Both Elite Eight contests tip off at 7 p.m.,
Here is a closer look at each supersectional:
At Dundee-Crown: Fremd has played one of the toughest schedules in the state and will play a Rockford Boylan team whose only loss came in its very next game after defeating Fremd 42-41 in the semifinals of the Martin Luther King tournament in DeKalb in January.
Boylan lost to state-ranked Rock Island in the championship 70-60. Junior center Sidney Stull scored a career-high 15 points in that game for Boylan.
A pair of key late steals by Frankie Schiro and Ashley Reyes's free throw with three seconds left lifted the Titans to the win over Fremd.
Reyes finished with 14 points while Sarah Welsh had 12 rebounds.
Fremd was led in that game by senior Grace Tworek's 15 points and 11 from Emily Klaczek.
McKenzie Brow, a 5-foot-7 junior guard, leads the Titans with 14 ppg. She also averages 4.8. rebounds and 3.1 steals while Reyes, a 5-4 sophomore guard, averages 9.9 ppg with 2.2 steals.
Like Boylan, Fremd also has a loss to Rock Island, a 49-42 setback at the Turkey Thriller in Lake Zurich in November.
The Vikings' other five losses are to sectional finalist Rolling Meadows (42-370, Elite Eight finalist Benet (62-60), sectional finalist Evanston (46-35) and sectional finalist Hersey (36-33) in the Mid-Suburban League championship game.
Fremd avenged that loss to Hersey in the Libertyville sectional championship when Tworek, the MSL West's player of the year, scored 17 points with 13 rebounds and 5 blocked shots.
Fremd's supersectional wins have been in 1977 (the first year of the girls state tournament), 1990, 2015 and 2016. The first two came under Hall of Fame coach Carol Plodzien, the last two under current coach Dave Yates, whose team lost to Benest in the state championship games the last two years.
At Addison Trail: Maine West bids for its first supersectional win since 2007 when the late Hall of Fame coach Derril Kipp was on his way to 788 career wins.
The Warriors have dedicated this season to Kipp, who died last summer following his 35th season directing the program which has won seven supersectionals (all under Kipp).
The Warriors defeated Evanston 50-31 at Niles West last Thursday, marking their 11th sectional crown in school history which includes nine under Kipp.
First-year coach Kim deMarigny received a game-high 24 points from junior guard Alisa Fallon, 10 from sophomore Rachel Kent and 8 from freshman Angela Dugalic in avenging a 54-40 loss to Evanston earlier in the season.
DeMarigny led West to an undefeated Central Suburban North title and championships at the Hoffman Estates and Dundee-Crown tourneys.
Geneva is appearing in its sixth supersectional in school history and all have been since 2009.
Coach Sarah Meadows led the Vikings to their last two in 2014 and 2015. In 2014, they took fourth place after falling to Rolling Meadows in the semifinals.
The No. 1 seeded Vikings defeated No. 3 seeded Rolling Meadows 66-40 at the Glenbard West sectional last week as 6-foot-2 senior center Grace Loberg (Wisconsin volleyball recruit) led the way with 21 points, 17 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.
Loberg scored 10 second-quarter points as the Vikings outscored the Mustangs 24-12 to extend their 13-5 first-quarter lead into an insurmountable 37-17 halftime advantage.