No letdown for Fremd in winning 7th straight

Fremd did not fall into any of the potential traps in Wednesday night's nonconference boys basketball trip to Larkin.

There was no letdown after a big Mid-Suburban West win Saturday at Schaumburg. There was no letup with senior scoring leader Chris Klimek out with a left shoulder injury.

The Vikings didn't let anything get in their way of a seventh straight victory as they improved to 17-1 with a 60-42 victory in Elgin.

"Coach (Bob Widlowski) always says you have to come ready to play every night," said Fremd senior guard Chris Vainisi, who came off the bench to score 7 points and provide a defensive spark with 3 first-half steals. "We have a target on our back and every time we win a game the target just grows. Everyone is going to give us our best game and that's what you want."

It couldn't have gone much better for the Vikings without the usual 17 points from Klimek, who Widlowski said is day-to-day. Zach Monaghan had 19 points on 8-for-13 shooting and 4 assists and Quinn Williams scored 16 points on 8-for-12 shooting.

But Vainisi, Jack Konopka and Jeff Chappell off the bench combined to account for all but 2 points of Klimek's average scoring output as the Vikings shot 54 percent from the field (27-for-50).

Konopka and Nick Pflederer had 7 rebounds apiece of their 30-23 edge on Larkin (7-11).

"We talked about it before that game that one guy didn't need to score 50 points because Klimek isn't playing," Vainisi said.

"I thought it was seamless," Widlowski said. "I don't think your typical fan would have noticed. Everyone stepped in and did their job."

Vainisi steals helped start and finish an 8-point run which gave Fremd a 28-14 lead 2:14 before halftime. Larkin never got closer than 12 points the rest of the way in its eighth straight loss.

"Every time we come out defense is the first thing we talk about in the locker room," Vainisi said.

"I've seen them quite a bit now and they're as good as anybody in this area," said Larkin coach Deryn Carter. "Monaghan controls the tempo of the game so well and they have great size.

"They're going to be a tough (postseason) out and they'll make some people nervous. They're a heck of a team."

Senior Jermaine Clements had 17 points on 8-for-15 shooting and 3 assists off the bench. Clements had 19 points in last Thursday's loss to St. Charles North.

The rest of the Royals, minus Drew Simonini because of injury and Carlito Singleton and Brian Cooks for team rules violations, were 9-for-29 from the field.

"(Jermaine) is a high-energy player and he gets a lot of stuff done," Carter said. "Some of it is very positives and we're trying to minimize some of the negative things."