Boys basketball: Fremd pulls away from Hoffman Estates
As drivers were traveling on the area roads Friday evening they were treated to a Valentine's Day snowstorm.
It also made for quite a comparison to the stormy conditions that Fremd has left for both its Mid-Suburban West and nonconference foes this winter. The Vikings have marched to their first divisional title since 2019 and garnered the top seed in the Class 4A Schaumburg sectional.
Their 83-65 win at Hoffman Estates provided a case study in that analogy as it faced some icy spots on the Hawks home floor in the early going before using a late first-half run to finally gain control of the contest and a surge at the beginning of half number to put the game on ice.
"I wish we were locked in at the beginning of the game," Fremd's first-year coach Mike Brown said after collecting their 24th win of the season.
Fremd travels to Rolling Meadows to face the host Mustangs on Wednesday for the MSL championship.
"Hoffman really came out firing at the start and it took us awhile to adjust but we ended up getting enough stops there which led to a lot of transition points so that was good for our team," Brown said.
After getting off to a 14-8 lead in the opening stanza, the Vikings (24-2, 9-1) saw that lead get plowed under by a 13-2 run by the hosts that put them up 21-16 heading into the second quarter. That surge included a pair of baskets from both junior guard Torrey Baskin and senior forward Nate Cleveland.
Fremd successfully countered that with a 14-4 tear of its own to gain a 37-31 advantage at the break which featured 5 of co-leading scorer Rafael Pinto's 25 points including a driving layup at the buzzer.
After a triple from senior Hoffman guard Joey Hernandez pulled the home team within 37-34 in the opening minute of the second half, Fremd proceeded to go on a 16-0 tear that settled things. Junior center Jordan Williams scored nine of his 25 points along with 8 more from Pinto that put the Vikings up 53-34 after a pair of successful charity tosses from Williams with 3:52 remaining in the quarter.
The Hawks would get no closer than 59-50 on a Baskin layup with 7:14 to play as it capped off 9-0 run before a Samuel Hirsch three and another hoop from Williams (11 rebounds) put Fremd up 64-50.
Senior guard Ryan Brown added 13 points for the Vikings whose Saturday afternoon home matinee versus Chicago Steinmetz was canceled by the CPS school this part week.
"We knew this game was going to be tough," said Pinto, who added a game-high 13 rebounds.
"Games like this help us prepare. They're (Hoffman) really aggressive. They play good basketball and they're really high energy. When they come out of the gates firing like that it can be tough but I think we did a good job handling that and it was a good team win."
Senior guard Daquan Daniels led the Hawks (20-10, 2-8) with 23 points followed by Baskin with 20 and Hernandez with 18. They will complete their regular season with an MSL crossover at Buffalo Grove on Tuesday before their regional opener at Larkin against archrival Conant on Feb. 26.
Pinto knows that more hard practices are still to come.
"We really work hard every day at practice to get better,“ Pinto said. ”I love this team. I love our coaches. We're never satisfied."