Fenwick turns up the heat on Fremd

Through turnovers, balanced offense, and fastbreaks, Fenwick built a big early lead against Fremd in the Sweet 16 Tournament at Lake Zurich on Saturday night and was able to cruise to a 60-37 victory.

Before the midway point of the second quarter, the Friars had built a 19-point lead, with it ballooning to 24 in the third quarter.

“We knew coming in that we had to take care of the ball,” Fremd coach Dave Yates said. “If we didn't take care of the ball, it was going to turn into a layup-fest. They are a good team. They are ranked for a reason. And they turned it into one.”

While senior guard Sarah Williams (16 points) and senior forward Kyra Navarrete (13 points) led the way offensively for Fenwick (21-2), the Friars maintained an offensive balance that was difficult to deal with.

“We've been trying to work on that all season,” Williams said. “Getting everyone touches, making sure everyone is involved. It makes it a lot harder for the other team to guard us. It's been going really well. It's great because you don't know who is going to be the leading scorer one night. That's not important to us at all.”

Junior center Meredith Boardman had 8 points for Fenwick; freshman point guard Jade Owens had 6; and senior guard Kathleen Roche had 5.

“Jumping out to a lead helped us,” Fenwick coach Dave Power said. “I think it kept them from being able to control the tempo. We started to get the game in transition, and that's what we like to do.”

Junior guard Jessi Wiedemann sank three 3-pointers, and led Fremd in scoring with 11 points. Sophomore Carrie Wagner chipped in 6 points off the bench for the Vikings.

It was an overall tough day for the Vikings (20-6). They lost earlier in the day to Marian Catholic 49-29.

“We have some big games coming up this week in conference,” Yates said. “We knew coming into this that we were going to hang around as long as we could, and if we couldn't hang around, we were not going to sit there and kill kids (physically).

“These games don't impact conference. These game don't impact seeding. It's just a nice opportunity to see where we are at. It doesn't diminish how good I think we are.”