Hawks rebound for third

Hoffman Estates found the perfect motivation to rebound from the end of its perfect start to the boys basketball season.

The Hawks overcame a sluggish start and made a series of crucial hustle plays in the fourth quarter Saturday night to beat Mid-Suburban West rival Fremd 63-54 in the third-place game of the 34th annual Elgin Holiday Tournament at Chesbrough Fieldhouse.

"We were disappointed about the first loss," Hoffman guard Luke Mead said of falling 50-48 in overtime in Friday's semifinal to Glenbrook South. "We knew we had to come out and play hard because it was a conference opponent.

"Our goal is not to lose to a team in the conference the whole year."

Mead did his part by scoring 12 of his game-high 27 points in the final 3:38 en route to all-tourney honors. He also had 7 assists and was 9-for-10 on free throws in the last 1:18.

But even though Hoffman (11-1) shot 67.7 percent from the field (21-for-31) and 7-for-10 on 3-pointers, it had a much tougher time than a 55-40 win over Fremd (3-9) on Dec. 5.

Fremd had four double-figure scorers account for all of its points.

Sophomore Zach Monaghan (18 points) was 6-for-7 on 3s that included two in the fourth quarter from NBA range. Dan Bruno had 14 points, all-tourney pick Chris Klimek had 12 points and 7 rebounds and Will Reising added 10 points.

"We expected to play much better this time," said Fremd coach Bob Widlowski. "But we need to make a play at a crucial time to get ourselves over the hump against teams like this."

Klimek followed a short turnaround to get Fremd within 45-44 with 5:35 left with a steal. But Mead swiped the ball back and Joe Valadez hit the first of 2 free throws at 5:01.

Tom Dombrowski got 1 of his 7 rebounds off Valadez's miss. A missed 3 was tipped out into Valadez's hands and led to Kemill Long (11 points) finding Mead for 1 of his four 3s in 5 attempts.

The duo then reversed roles as Long hit his third 3 of the second half to put Hoffman up 52-44 with 3:22 left.

"Those possessions, those were key," Widlowski said. "Hoffman does a nice job when they get the lead on you of taking care of the ball and making you work to get it back."

Kevin Tiongson also hit 2 free throws with a minute left to help Hoffman seal its fifth top-four finish at Elgin since 2000.

"I think we bounced back pretty well," Mead said as he glanced at Glenbrook South and Neuqua Valley taking the court for the championship. "Obviously we would haveliked to be playing right now, but it didn't end up the way we wanted."