Bartlett to meet Fremd again

It may have been a better, more consistent effort by the Bartlett girls basketball team Tuesday night but the Hawks came away knowing one thing: They will have to play better if they are going to win their first Charger Classic at Dundee-Crown.

Haley Videckis scored 20 points and Kristin Conniff added 19 as the top-ranked Hawks (16-0) downed Buffalo Grove 70-50 in the quarterfinals of the 29th annual tournament in Carpentersville, setting up a semifinal showdown against No. 4 Fremd at 8 p.m. tonight, a rematch of last year's semifinal won by Bartlett 49-43.

Fremd knocked off previously undefeated Hononegah 60-54 in overtime Tuesday and will bring a 12-1 record into tonight's semifinal. Defending champion Fenwick will meet New Trier in the first semifinal, also a rematch of a semi from last year.

"I quite honestly don't think what's happened these last two games will enter into our player's minds (tonight)," said Bartlett coach Denise Sarna. "Fremd's a good team and there won't be any problem getting us into the right frame of mind."

And while Conniff, who now has 952 career points, thought her team did play better Tuesday than on Monday, she also agrees that tonight will be a tougher task for the Hawks, who finished second at D-C last year.

"I feel like we did a better job on our rotations on defense and offensively we did a better job of moving the ball and creating shots," Conniff said. "These teams ahead are going to be good teams. We're going to have to play defense, box out and do the little things."

Bartlett did enough right defensively Tuesday night to frustrate Buffalo Grove (2-10) into 27 turnovers, 14 of which the Hawks turned into points.

"They just have so many weapons and they're so athletic," said BG coach Pat Dudle. "Their traps on the sidelines cause some havoc and they get easy baskets off them. They're definitely a very tough transition team."

The Bison hung with Bartlett for most of the first quarter but a 9-2 Hawk run to close the period gave Bartlett a 21-13 lead. The Hawks extended the advantage to 42-26 by halftime as six Bartlett players scored in the second quarter.

Bartlett then put an end to any chance of second-half drama with a 9-0 run to end the third quarter, putting the Hawks up 60-35 and allowing Sarna to give her starters some rest for tonight's semifinals.

"We were a little fumbly at the beginning but overall our intention tonight was to come out with good energy on the defensive end and that sparked our offense, and we had good balance with our scoring tonight," Sarna said.

Bartlett also took away the lane in the second half, now allowing Buffalo Grove point guard Emily Cho to hurt the Hawks.

"We talked at halftime about keeping Cho out of the paint and we did a better job of that in the second half," said Sarna.

Bartlett got its shooting eye back as well, hitting on 31 of 60 after struggling Monday from the floor. BG did outrebound the Hawks, 34-28. But Bartlett only turned the ball over 12 times in the game as seniors Janessa Baker (7 assists, 5 steals) and Nicole Gobbo ran the offense flawlessly.

"We're going to be more battle tested by playing teams like this," Dudle said. "We'll have to beat teams like this if we're going to win a regional or a sectional."

Junior Bailey North led the Bison with 16 points and 8 rebounds.

Fremd 60, Rockton Hononegah 54: As Haley Gorecki stepped to the free-throw line in overtime Tuesday evening for Fremd, the freshman faced the biggest pressure of her very short high school career.

Gorecki calmly made three free-throws in the final minute to give the Vikings a 60-54 win over Hononegah at the 29th annual Dundee-Crown Christmas Classic, ending Hononegah's 17-game winning streak to start the season and sending Fremd (12-1) to the semifinals tonight against Bartlett at 8 p.m. Fremd beat Hononegah in last season's quarterfinals before losing to Bartlett in the semifinals.

Gorecki finished with a career-high 22 points, 17 of which came in the second half and overtime. She said that there were a lot of nerves on the overtime free throws.

"I made the first two but it was a little scary," Gorecki said. "We were able to get through it."

Fremd wouldn't have made it to overtime without Gorecki, especially in the third quarter when she scored 12 of the team's 14 points in the quarter to keep the game close. With the Vikings trailing by 5 with five minutes left in regulation, Fremd began to rally.

Ashley McConnell, who finished with 18 points, hit her fifth 3-pointer of the game to pull Fremd within 2. Jessi Wiedemann hit another 3-pointer with 2:30 to play to give Fremd the lead and after 2 free throws by Marilyn Lortz, Fremd led 48-45 with 1:39 to go.

Hononegah's Krystal James hit her third 3-pointer of the second half with a minute to go to tie the game again. Fremd had a chance to win in regulation but Lortz's shot with five seconds left was short.

In overtime, Wiedemann, who finished with 12 points, hit another 3-pointer to give Fremd the lead for good. The teams combined for 17 3-pointers.

Gorecki said it was a big win to beat a team that had come in undefeated.

"They are a really good team and we came out to play," Gorecki said. "It was a tough battle but we won."

While Gorecki kept the team afloat in the third quarter, McConnell kept Fremd in the game in the first half while making 4 3-pointers as Fremd trailed 28-23 at the break. Fremd coach Dave Yates said he was pleased with how his team persevered.

"Someone here said that this game is a championship game in a lot of tournaments," Yates said. "For us to hit some big shots . . . we hung around and hung around. It seemed like we were in a trouble a couple of times, but I was proud of us being resilient and hanging in there."

Karley Korberg scored 13 points to pace the Indians. James and Liz Jordan both added 11 points while Iowa recruit Nicole Smith scored 10.

Hononegah next meets Buffalo Grove at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Andy Schmidt

Fenwick 80, Maine West 41: For the first half of Tuesday's 29th annual Dundee-Crown Christmas Classic quarterfinal against Fenwick, Maine West was able to hang around with the defending tournament champions.

In the second half, however, any hopes of a second straight upset vanished as the Friars pulled away for an 80-41 win over the Warriors.

Maine West (4-10) will play Evanston at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in the consolation bracket.

Maine West used an 8-2 run in the first quarter to take a 10-7 lead. But soon after, Fenwick went on a run of its own to take the lead for good.

Fenwick led 40-26 at halftime before scoring the first 11 points of the third quarter. The Friars finished with a 26-6 scored edge in the period.

Brittany Collins led Maine West with 16 points, 14 of which came in the first half. Collins said that the Fenwick press caused problems.

Andy Schmidt