Girls basketball: Loyola runs away from Fremd with 26-point third quarter
A sizzling hot third quarter by Loyola put Fremd on ice Monday afternoon at Coach Kipp’s Hoopsfest in Lisle.
On a bitterly cold day when players, coaches, officials and fans alike were more than happy to be inside a warm gym, the Ramblers put 26 points on the board in the third period en route to a 66-41 victory over the Vikings.
Fremd, using good pressure, actually was strong on the defensive end in the first half. The Ramblers led 24-16 at intermission, but the Vikings had forced Loyola into missing their first eight 3-point attempts, and held them to 2-of-13 overall from 3-point land.
The problem was, Fremd couldn’t get anything going on offense — and in the third quarter, the Ramblers exploded.
It was a rematch of two teams that played in the Class 4A semifinals last season. The Ramblers won that game en route to a state title.
“We got away from our game plan a little bit about containing,” said Vikings coach James Han. “Obviously they (Loyola) are a very talented team.”
Fremd committed 17 turnovers.
“You give a team 17 extra chances,” added Han, “and give yourselves 17 less chances, it’s usually not going to go well.”
Loyola (20-2) guard Aubrey Galvan tallied 13 points in the third stanza, scoring a game-high 21.
“I think defense is what kept us in it,” said Galvan of the Loyola first-half shooting woes. “We all have each other’s backs, no matter what. We knew we were going to shoot the ball better.”
Six-foot senior Ella Todd scored a team-high 15 points for Fremd (17-5) to go along with 6 rebounds.
“We didn’t take care of the ball,” said Todd.
Vikings senior Coco Urlacher scored 5 of her 10 points in the second quarter to keep Fremd close.
Then Galvan kicked into high gear, and her steal and layup early in the third quarter put the Ramblers up 30-18. When teammate Clare Weasler hit a 3-pointer midway through, the score stood at 42-21.
Urlacher had 5 points in the final stanza but Fremd couldn’t get any closer.
“I felt like we had a good game plan coming in,” said Han. “Defensively, when you give up 26 points in the third quarter, it’s pretty tough to come back from.
“Lot of things we can get better at, that’s the positives. Any questions there were about different things we need to get better at were answered. We still have a long way to go if we want to reach our goals.”
Greta Thompson finished with 7 points for the Vikings. Ellie Thompson had 2 steals, while Isabella Del Mar led the way rebounding with 9 boards.
Grace Todd had 4 assists for Fremd.
“You know what, teams lose games like this,” added Han. “It’s how do we respond the rest of the season that’ll be telling.”