Klimek, Fremd roll over Conant, earn 7th MSL West title
Chris Klimek lifted teammate Chris Vainisi high into the air as the celebration of the end of a 12-year drought began for Fremd on Friday night at Conant.
Klimek also did plenty of heavy lifting to make the possibility of a Mid-Suburban West boys basketball title a reality for the Vikings.
The 6-foot-3 senior had 25 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists as Fremd (19-1, 8-0) never trailed and wrapped up its seventh MSL division title with a 55-33 victory at Perry Gymnasium in Hoffman Estates.
"From day one our goal was a conference championship and further," Klimek said after making 10 of his first 11 shots and finishing 12-for-16. "We knew we had a special group and had so much talent."
Senior Quinn Williams hit all 6 of his shots to score 13 points. He provided his usual tight defense to limit Conant (12-8, 4-4) scoring leader Christian Sotos to 6 of his 13 points on 3-for-11 shooting.
Junior Zach Monaghan was all over the passing lanes with 6 steals to go with 10 points and 5 assists. And 6-4 junior Jack Konopka added 7 points and 7 rebounds in a start for 6-6 senior Nick Pflederer, who rolled his right ankle in practice Wednesday and didn't play.
"They played both ends of the floor and did it very, very well," said Conant coach Tom McCormack, whose team lost the first meeting 62-29.
Fremd believed it got back to the way it played in the first meeting with a defensive effort that wreaked havoc in the second quarter.
Eight turnovers fueled a 17-3 tear capped by Klimek's 3 for a 29-12 lead 1:54 before halftime in its ninth straight victory.
"That dropped off during the season and we needed to get back to it," Williams said of getting up in the passing lanes.
"We really talked about trying to start our offense with our defense and we did that," Fremd coach Bob Widlowski said after the Vikings got 21 points off 20 turnovers. "We talked about being more active and the reward would be getting some easy transition baskets."
The Vikings kept making it look easy as they hit their first 5 shots of the second half. They didn't even score in the final 6:36 after Konopka's 3-point play put them at 67 percent from the field (26-for-39).
"Konopka stepped up huge," Klimek said. "We can hit people from so many different angles it doesn't matter who's scoring."
Andrew Spangler had 8 points to lead Conant, which shot 31.7 percent (13-for-41) and now has tough road tests at Glenbrook North tonight and Deerfield on Tuesday.
Fremd will try to win 20 games for the first time since 1998 at Leyden tonight and gear up for hosting the MSL title game Feb. 24.
"It just feels great coming off last season and not even being in the running in the MSL," Williams said, "to be 8-0 and clinching with two games to go."