Fremd finishes 4-0 week by routing Maine South
Other than the week of its Morton College tournament in December, Fremd's girls basketball team finished off its only other four-game week of the season on Saturday night.
And the Vikings did it in stellar fashion.
They showed why they are ranked No. 2 state in the Class 4A state poll by taking a 64-47 decision over No. 7 Maine South to complete a 4-0 week with earlier wins against Montini, Hoffman Estates and Palatine.
"We really had to be focused tonight coming off these past games this week," said junior Brynn Eshoo. "And we needed to start out each quarter strong and I think we did that."
Especially quarters No. 1 and 2 in which the Vikes led 21-8 and 41-23 at intermission.
"I thought that was one of the better offensive halves I've seen one of our teams play in a long time," said Fremd coach Dave Yates, whose club (24-2) notched its 12th Mid-Suburban West title in his 17 years on Friday night. "And Maine South (21-5) is good. Obviously they played much better in the second half but I was proud of our kids for coming out ready to go and executing what we wanted to do."
Sophomore Ella Todd's 3-pointer with 4:55 left in the first quarter ignited a 19-6 run for the Vikings, capped by Eshoo's putback for a 21-8 lead.
"This game really prepared us for what is coming up soon," added Eshoo, who finished with 11 points, 6 rebounds and 2 steals.
"It was a good week for us," added Yates, whose team was led by Todd (22 points, three 3-pointers, 4 rebounds, 3 assists), Maddy Fay (11 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals), Kace Urlacher (11 points 7 assists), Ellie Thompson (10 points, two 3-pointers, 4 rebounds) and Coco Urlacher (6 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 points).
Baskets by Ally Pape and Julia Beck to start the second quarter got Maine South to within 21-12 but Fremd responded with a 9-2 run, capped by Todd's 3-pointer and a steal and a layup by Ellie Thompson for a 30-14 lead.
Maine South, led by Pape (16 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds) and Meegan Fahey (13 points, 2 steals), outscored Fremd 24-23 in the final two quarters.
"Hats off to Fremd," said Maine South coach Jeff Hamann. "Our first half was obviously not what we wanted it to be, defensively and offensively. We know what we are capable of. We know that we are a good basketball team. We didn't show it in the first half and that's a credit to Fremd. They are excellent and every bit as advertised.
"So we are going to learn from it. At this stage of the season where it is coming to be state tournament time, this is exactly what we wanted. Yes, we wanted to win but we wanted to perform a little better especially in the first half. But we'll learn from it. We'll pick our heads up, walk out proud and get ready for the state tournament run."
Asia Kobylarczyk added 6 points for the Hawks while Beck added 5 and Ava Blagojevich had a 3-pointer and 8 assists.
"We were a little tight in the first half which is a little uncharacteristic of us," Hamann added. "So at half we talked about 'Let's relax, let's play our game and just play for ourselves' and obviously you saw in the second half it was a little better effort from us. We learned from that. Meegan and Ally Pape did a nice job. We hope to be back here again. That's our goal. They (Fremd) are hosting the supersectional. But we have a long way to go before that."
Hersey 68, McAuley 60:
The 2022 Gatorade Illinois Player of the Year Katy Eidle became the second Hersey girl to score 2,000 points in a career as the Michigan-bound senior netted a team-high 23 points and now has 2.005.
Megan Rogowski is the all-time leader at Hersey with 2,365.
After trailing most of the game, the Huskies (21-6) closed on an 18-8 run.
Barrington 66, Vernon Hills 57:
Senior and Purdue-bound Sophie Swanson, the 2022 Captain of the Daily Herald Cook All-Area Team, scored her 2,000th point as she scored a game-high 38 points to give her 2,005 for her career. The Fillies improved to 19-8.