Fremd tops Conant for West repeat

Even with its chances of playing in next week's Mid-Suburban League boys basketball championship game no better than slim before the game even started, Fremd earned a share of the title by surviving a hard-fought 55-52 game at Conant's Perry Gym Friday.

The Vikings, Barrington and Schaumburg all finished with 7-3 MSL West records, and Barrington won the tiebreakers to represent the division against Prospect in the championship game next week.

"One of our goals was to win the MSL West, and we achieved that," Fremd coach Bob Widlowski said of the repeat title and eighth in its history. "It was a hard-fought game, and we had to execute down to the last possession."

The Vikings broke out from a 46-46 tie when Jack Konopka (14 points) scored with 4:06 left in the game, followed by 2 free throws by Quinton Brown (14) and 1 of 2 by Zach Monaghan (15) to put Fremd on top 51-46 with 1:35 remaining.

Conant pulled within 53-52 when London Dokubo made a 3-point play and Brian Wadsworth (9 points) drained a 3 with 46.5 seconds remaining. A pair of free throws by Monaghan with 15.5 seconds made it 55-52 and set up Conant's final possession.

With 2 fouls to give, Brown used them to force the Cougars into a final chance to score after a timeout with 3.8 seconds left. Defensive pressure from Monaghan forced an off-the-mark attempt by Wadsworth as time expired.

"We knew they'd be ganged up on (Dylan) Bartuch (game-high 16 points, including 4 3s), so we were looking for (Sean) Bourke (9 points)," Conant coach Tom McCormack said. "They knew we needed to shoot a 3 and defended it."

"I was just trying to contest it," Monaghan said. "This was a good accomplishment for us and was one of our goals."

Fremd (17-8) and Conant (16-8, 6-4) came into the game with nearly identical overall records, and the game showed just how evenly matched the teams are.

They were deadlocked at 11-11 after the first quarter when Conant's Tim Manczko tipped in a miss just before time expired and at 26-26 at halftime, thanks to a buzzer-beating 3-point shot by Dokubo.

Fremd led 38-36 heading into the fourth quarter, and that's when the Vikings' three seniors did what seniors are expected to do.

"This was huge," Konopka said. "To go on the road and win is great."

"He's a great competitor," Brown said of his point guard battle with Conant's Dokubo, who finished with 8 points. "I just tried to stay in front of him."

"We put them on the line too much," McCormack said. "Give credit to Fremd, but we don't feel like we played one of our better games."

Fremd made 21 of 24 from the line, while Conant was 4 of 6. Conant committed 13 turnovers to just 6 for Fremd.