Defense, balance help Fremd past Huntley
Fremd coach Bob Widlowski was extremely happy with his team's defensive effort in the Vikings' 56-46 victory over visiting Huntley on Tuesday in nonconference play.
“I thought the guys did a great job on ‘D',” said Widlowski. “We've seen Huntley quite a bit, and they've got some good scorers so to hold them to 20 points in the first half was key.”
Senior guard Tyler Brunschon led the Huntley attack with 15 points, while Fremd senior Zach Monaghan followed up Saturday's 38-point, 8-steal effort against Downers Grove South with a game-high 21 points Tuesday, including 5-for-8 from 3-point range.
“Their number 4 (Quinton Brown) and number 23 (Monaghan) scared me,” said Huntley coach Marty Manning. “We were determined not to let Monaghan beat us, but he got loose early on some screens for some good looks on 3s.
“If we had done a better job on team defense against him, it might have been a different story.”
Jim Scharfe scored 15 points for the Vikings while 6-foot-5 senior Jack Konopka added 13, and that was the difference according to Widlowski.
“We can't count on Zach scoring 38 points every game,” said the coach. “We're going to need more balance going forward, and Jimmy and Jack stepped up tonight.”
“This was a total team effort,” said Monaghan. “We just take what the defense gives us, and Jimmy, Jack and everybody on the team did a great job.”
“We had great energy, especially off the bench. We didn't have our band and our cheerleaders tonight so we had to create our own energy and I think we did that.”
Fremd (5-4) opened up a big lead early and maintained it through most of three quarters, but Huntley struck back, and a 3 by Brunschon brought the Red Raiders within 6 points with three minutes left in the third.
But Monaghan answered seconds later with a 3 that bounced on the rim and went in, and a layup by Scharfe put the Vikings back up by double digits.
Fremd led 51-34 midway through the fourth quarter, but defensive pressure led to a 3-pointer by Huntley (5-1) junior guard Troy Miller, and layups by Jake Brock and Brunschon put the Red Raiders right back in it.
Then a Brown layup with 2:22 left stemmed the tide and Fremd was able to play keepaway in the final minutes to secure the win.
Brown scored 4 points for the Vikings, while Huntley junior forward Justin Frederik scored 13 points and grabbed 11 boards.
“We did a much better job on offense in the 2nd half,” said Manning, “but we couldn't get a stop. We'd cut the lead down and then they'd hit a big shot or a big 3.”