Conniff's 32 buoy Bartlett

Bartlett senior Kristin Conniff said her team did a good job of moving the basketball and finding the open player Wednesday night.

Sure did. Her.

Conniff scored a career-high 32 points as No. 1 Bartlett eased away from No. 4 Fremd late, pulling out a 70-61 win in the semifinals of the 29th Annual Charger Classic at Dundee-Crown.

Bartlett (17-0) will play for the championship of the prestigious tournament for the second year in a row when it takes on New Trier (15-2) at 8 p.m. today. New Trier upset defending champion Fenwick 71-68 in Wednesday's other semifinal, marking the first time since 1998 that Fenwick has not been in the D-C title game. The Friars defeated Bartlett 65-47 in last year's championship game.

With Fremd concentrating its defensive strategy on denying Bartlett's leading scorer, senior Haley Videckis, the basketball the Hawks went to Conniff instead and the uncommitted 6-footer delivered with the biggest game of her career, one that now leaves her 16 points shy of 1,000 for her career.

"Their focus was Haley and everyone came out and played well and played like a team," Conniff said. "I was able to cut to the basket and score but this was a really great team victory."

Neither team had more than a 6-point lead in the seesaw battle until late in the third quarter when Conniff, who also had 14 rebounds, nailed one of her 4 3-pointers to put the Hawks up 51-44 with 2:13 left in the third.

Bartlett extended the lead to 10, 65-55, with 3:02 to play when senior point guard Janessa Baker (4 assists) fed Conniff for a layup. Fremd (12-2) eventually fought back to within 5, 66-61, on 2 free throws from freshman Haley Gorecki with 1:22 to play but that would be the last points for the Vikings. Videckis and Conniff each made 2 free throws in the final 38 seconds to seal the win for Bartlett.

"We were our own worst enemy," said Fremd coach Dave Yates, whose team led 33-32 at halftime by shooting 12 of 26 before going just 9-for-29 in the second half, including 2-for-16 in the fourth quarter. "(Bartlett) is a good team but we didn't take a lot of good shots and we didn't take care of the ball."

Bartlett, meanwhile, was 27 of 59 from the floor and owned a 35-34 advantage on the boards. Videckis added 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Hawks, who only had 5 turnovers in the second half after committing 10 in the first half. Katie Gutzwiller and Lisa Palmer added 8 points each for Bartlett.

"We knew Fremd was a good defensive team and we told Haley she'd get some tough defenders," Bartlett coach Denise Sarna said. "Kristin did a real nice job tonight, as did everyone. Janessa Baker had some key assists in the second half, Lisa Palmer was strong on the boards and we got some points from Katie Gutzwiller. It was another nice team win."

Ashley McConnell led Fremd with 22 points, but 19 of those came in the first half.

"(McConnell) was killing us in the first half," Sarna said. "We made some really poor defensive mistakes in the first half but in the second half we had a really good team defensive effort. I can't say enough about the kids responded after halftime. I'm really proud of the team effort tonight."

Gorecki added 15 points and 8 rebounds, Jessi Wiedemann had 9 points and 8 rebounds and Bernie Williams scored 8 points for the Vikings.

"We had a really tough overtime game (Tuesday) and you could see that at the end tonight," Yates said. "A lot of shots we typically hit just weren't falling but that's tournament basketball."

Bartlett now gets another shot at the Dundee-Crown title, which has been the Hawks' goal all along.

"It feels good to be back in the championship game," Conniff said. "(New Trier) is a good team and it's going to be a good game."

New Trier 71, Fenwick 68: Northwestern recruit Maggie Lyon scored 22 points to lead the Trevians past Fenwick (11-4). Lyon, however, suffered a sprained ankle early in the third quarter and sat out part of the second half. She did return to finish the game but New Trier coach Teri Rodgers said after the game she wasn't sure about Lyon's status for tonight's title game. Jessica Blackwell added 17 points for the Trevians, who won the D-C title in 2009, becoming the only team other than Fenwick and Naperville Central to win the Charger Classic since 1998.

Marek Burchet had 27 points to lead Fenwick and Jade Owens added 17.