Boys basketball: Hirsch’s 23 leads Fremd to Hardwood Classic crown

Winning a holiday tournament was on Fremd’s Sam Hirsch’s bucket list.

So the 6-foot-4 senior guard made sure that he put the ball in the bucket.

Hirsch finished with 21 points, including 4 three-pointers. That helped lead Fremd to a 56-44 win over Deerfield in the championship game of the 46th annual Wheeling Hardwood Classic Saturday.

“I am so excited,” Said Hirsch, who was named to the all-tournament team. “It is the first time I have won a tournament here. My teammates just kept finding me and I had to knock it down. We share the ball a lot. We were getting good shots.”

It was the 12th consecutive victory for Fremd (13-1). It was also the second Hardwood Classic title for the Vikings and their first since 2018.

“It’s is unbelievable,,” said Fremd coach Mike Brown, who was making his first appearance as head coach of the Vikings at the Hardwood Classic.

“We have not won this in a long time. We have a good bunch of kids. We are excited about it.”

With Deerfield sitting in a 2-3 zone, Fremd attacked from the perimeter. The early strategy bore lots of fruit as the Vikings hit a trio of three-pointers with Hirsch knocking down a pair and Rafael Pinto hitting another as Fremd led 9-3 early.

Deerfield then came back behind the play of Jake Pollack (22 points, 9 rebounds, 5 blocks), Evan Nagler (11 points) and Sam Hanus (7 points). The Warriors use that trio to pull ahead 13-11. Fremd’s Jordan Williams crashed hard on offensive boards and his putback just beat the buzzer to tie the game at 13-13.

Fremd was able to pull away from a 19-19 tie late in the second quarter to lead 25-19 at the break. Hirsch knocked down his third triple and Pinto (14 points) had a key three-point play to give the Vikings the lead.

Fremd led 34-29 midway through the third quarter when Deerfield made another move. The Warriors scored six straight and took the lead on a basket by Pollack with 2:02 left in the quarter.

Fremd went on their own 6-0 run to open up a 40-35 lead on a another putback with 7:37 left to play.

“My shots weren’t falling,” said Williams, who finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists and was named tournament MVP.

“But I tried to find any way to help my team, whether it was rebounds or assists. I found my teammates and we got the job done.”

Deerfield made one final run. The Warriors closed to 43-41 with 5:38 left on a basket by Pollack. But Fremd’s shooting and defense took over.

Ryan Brown (8 points) knocked down a key three-pointer. The Vikings then followed with two steals which led to easy layups by Pinto and Hirsch and Fremd was on its way with a 50-41 lead with 3:22 left.

“What a tough game,” Mike Brown said. “Deerfield is so good and they are tough team to play against with their style. We did enough today as a team to figure it out.”

Deerfield coach Dan McKendrick said that his team struggled with some of Fremd’s game.

“Give them credit,” McKendrick said. “They won the 50-50 balls, they got offensive rebounds and second chance points. Their length also bothered us. They were hard to trap.”

Glenbrook North 56, Downers Grove North 39: Glenbrook North (9-5), which finished second the last three years, finished third this year by rolling over the Trojans (9-3). Jordan Cohen had 20 points for Glenbrook North while Nate Fridman added 15. Bobby Grganto led Downers North with 15 while Jack Crowley had 8 points.

In other Hardwood Classic news, Wheeling freshman Kye Parker Peterson tied the tournament record with 20 three-pointers. Peterson tied the record set by Loyola’s Collin Falls from 2002.