Girls basketball: Fremd wins debut in MSL East, defeating Rolling Meadows

Fremd's state-ranked girls basketball team, which has been a dominating force in the Mid-Suburban West for many seasons, played its first game on Friday night in the newly formed MSL East Division.

The back-to-back Class 4A finalists (6-0), who haven't lost a conference game since Jan. 18, 2022, settled right into their new division with a 52-46 victory over visiting Rolling Meadows (5-1).

“It's so different with all the change-up in our division and all the different competition,” said Vikings senior Greta Thompson, who scored a team-high 23 points. “But it's definitely going to give us more competitive games.”

Friday night was one of those, as the Vikings were nursing a 2-point lead after Nell Osterhues hit one of her three 3-pointers with five seconds left in the third quarter to make the score 34-32.

But the host Vikings opened the fourth period with a 10-1 run and never trailed.

Senior Lucy Kim started the run with a 3-pointer before Thompson scored the next 7 points, with a layup off a nifty pass from Gracie Todd (7 points). Thompson then hit her third and final 3-pointer for a 44-33 lead with 5:03 left in the game.

“We were able to open it up,” said first-year Fremd coach Jim Weaver. “We've got some things we have to work on, but all in all it was a good effort, a really good effort. Bella (Del Mar) played great. She took a charge so it was fun to watch.

“It was mostly defense,” Thompson said. “I feel like they had a lot of back screens, back cuts, so help defense was definitely a big part of the second half for us.”

Rolling Meadows kept up the intensity and pulled to within 48-44 with back-to-back 3-pointers from Nell Osterhues (9 points) and Abby Ramel (team-high 23 points).

Two free throws from Fremd's Nelly Gonnella made it 50-44 with 1:06 left.

Ramel's drive for a layup cut it to 50-46 with 43 seconds left before the Vikes wrapped it up with a pair of free throws from Kim with 11.5 seconds left.

“We've hadn't played for 13 days, having almost two weeks off because of our schedule, so we expected things to be a little difficult,” Weaver said. “I was proud of the way they finished the game out right there.”

Two free throws by Ramel (5 rebounds) gave Rolling Meadows a 2-0 lead, but Fremd answered with nine straight points, getting a 3-pointer from Todd, a free throw by Del Mar, a steal and layup by Todd and a fastbreak layup from Del Mar.

Rolling Meadows got within 13-9 by the end of the quarter, thanks to a basket from Lizzy Andriano (8 assists, 6 rebounds) basket with 40 seconds left.

A 3-pointer by Ramel, a driving layup by Andriano, a fastbreak layup by Ramel started by Dalia Grandberry's rebound and another fastbreak layup by Andriano gave the Mustangs an 18-13 lead to start the second quarter.

But the Vikings came back with an 8-1 run to close the half and led 21-19 at the break. Thompson scored all 8 points, hitting back-to-back 3-pointers and scoring a driving layup with 12 seconds left.

“Offensively, (Thompson) played great,” Weaver said.

Other statistical leaders for Rolling Meadows were Dalia Grandbrry (6 rebounds, 3 blocked shots), Anna Andriano (3 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists) and Iris Jordan (3 rebounds, 2 assists).

“First off, (the Vikings are) a great team,” said Rolling Meadows coach Ryan Kirkorsky. “And I just said to our kids that I was proud of them the whole night.

“Every challenge, I thought we responded to. You know, there's some things that we probably want to do differently the next time that we play them. But I thought that everyone who played contributed at a high level. I thought we played tough and gave ourselves a chance down the last couple of minutes.”

Kim added 11 points (three 3-pointers) for Fremd. Del Mar had 6.

“We definitely some younger players and a lot of new, moving parts,” said Thompson, who started on last year's Class 4A runner-up team. “We're definitely rebuilding, and I'm loving this team so far.”