Fremd runs past Lakes
They aren’t the Roadrunner, but Fremd is showing that can get around pretty quick as well.
The Vikings used a solid transition game to run past Lakes 82-49 Tuesday in Palatine.
The game was the opening round of the Lakes’ annual MLK tournament. That tournament will be completed the weekend of Jan. 13th at Lakes in Lake Villa.
“I thought we did well on transition tonight,” Fremd coach Bob Widlowski said. “We would have liked to have rebounded better in the first half to give us more opportunities to be in transition. I thought we made a big improvement in the second half and that allowed us to extend our lead.”
Fremd (5-3) has now won three in a row. And the Vikings are finding their footing after beginning the season with two quick wins and then losing three straight.
“We are filling our roles better,” Widlowski said. “We are playing much better now than we were at Thanksgiving. We hope to continue in this direction.”
Fremd used a strong defense and solid transition game to pull away early.
The Vikings bounded out to a 9-0 lead on a three by Ryan Cox, a basket by Samuel Hirsch and a pair of buckets from Daniel Ko.
Lakes (3-8), which had come into the game on a two-game winning streak, tried to get back in the game. The Eagles were able to pull to within 11-7 on a basket by Lamar Pierce.
Fremd, which forced six Lakes’ turnovers in the first quarter, then scored 9 unanswered points and the Vikings were on their way. They had another spurt in the second quarter and went into the locker room with a 44-23 lead.
Hirsch, who had 15 of his game- and season-high 21 points in the first half, said that the Vikings are getting used to a faster pace.
“We had some good stops and once we got the rebound we just push,” said Hirsch.
“With that we just get a flowing offense. We are real big, so we all cam run the floor all the time.”
Cox, who had a trio of three-pointers and finished with 17 points, said that Vikings can count all their players to use their ball handling skills to speed the game up.
“It’s good that a lot of our team can bring up the ball,” Cox said. “It doesn’t always have to be me in transition. We are a dangerous team in transition. If they find me in transition, I can knock down a three.”
Fremd was able to push its lead to 31 points to trigger the running clock. Widlowski cleared his bench and 12 different Vikings scored.
“The kids that came in did a nice job tonight,” Widlowski said. “They did a nice job on both ends of the floor.”
Jordan Williams added 11 points and Ko finished with 8 points.
Lakes was led by James Kania, who had 15 points. Prodive Matumona-Nzama had 7 points and 9 rebounds while Pierce added six points.
“We would have liked to see us compete a little more for four quarters,” Lakes coach Chris Snyder said. “We did some some fight, but Fremd was hitting their shots.”