Girls basketball: Thompson’s late 3-pointer lifts Fremd past Hersey
With its 2-1 record in the Mid-Suburban League East, Fremd girls basketball team came to Mt. Prospect on Tuesday night looking to break the division's first-place tie between Hersey and Prospect (who were 3-0).
And it was Greta Thompson breaking a 42-42 tie with 19 seconds left when her eighth 3-pointer of the game lifted three-time defending MSL champ Fremd to an exciting 45-42 victory over Prospect in the Jean Walker Field House.
After a 17-footer by Prospect senior and Murray State pledge Alli Linke (21 points) tied the game at 42-42 with 1:02 left, the Vikings (14-3, 3-1) patiently passed the ball around the perimeter looking for their best shot.
With the clock down to 25 seconds, the ball was in the hands of junior Gracie Todd, who made some nice dribble moves to free herself from traffic and delivered a pass to Thompson on the 3-point line.
Like she did all night, the 5-foot-11 Thompson calmly swished the 3-pointer, forcing the Knights to score at least 3 points on their last possession.
The Fremd defense stepped up, forcing Prospect (10-7, 3-1) to call two timeouts at 13 and 6 seconds, before an extremely well-guarded 3-pointer missed and was rebounded by Fremd senior Lucy Kim with one second left to secure the win.
Playing in what has long been known as one of the toughest backgrounds to shoot against in a MSL gymnasium, Thompson finished with a career-high 32 points (4-of-4 free throws).
"Gracie's a great playmaker," Thompson said of her winning bucket. "I mean, she's really good at seeing the court, and I feel like we work well together. I was kind of shocked (of her 32 points) because usually it's hard to shoot in Prospect's gym. I could just feel it tonight from my first shot and just kept shooting."
"I'm super proud of Greta," said Fremd coach Jim Weaver. "It was a big bounce-back game for Greta. She wasn't happy with how she played in our last game against St. Charles East (overtime win last week) and she answered that, and that's toughness right there."
Thompson was tough right from the get-go.
She had the first and last baskets of the first quarter, both being 3-pointers and the second giving the visitors a 12-9 lead after one period.
Thompson then added three more long-distance buckets in the second quarter along with a big driving bank shot with five seconds left. That was Fremd's first 2-point basket of the game and sent the Vikings into the locker room with a 24-20 lead.
"Credit to Thompson," said Prospect coach Matt Weber. "She came to play and made some big shots."
Prospect scored the first 8 points of the second half with an 8-footer from freshman Ashley Skelton, back-to-back buckets from junior Zoe Black (8 points), and a driving bank shot by Linke that made it 28-24.
Fremd answered with a free throw from Kim (6 points) and back-to-back 3-pointers from Thompson for a 31-28 lead with 1:32 left in the third quarter, and the two teams fought back and forth the rest of the way.
"I thought our team did a good job of battling after losing one of our starters (standout freshman Mia Marling with a knee injury) in the first two minutes of the game,“ Weber said. "We battled through some adversity, we kept fighting, and just came up a little short. We just have to learn from this experience. I think we did a nice job of stepping up for a fallen teammate and helping each other out."
Weaver said it wasn't the Vikings' best game defensively.
"We have some things to clean up, and the girls know that," said Weaver, who got back-to-back steals and a layup from Bella Del Mar (4 points) and Kim to tie the game at 37 early in the fourth quarter. "But you've to make a choice if you're going to be tough enough to win. And they were tonight. So, I'm proud of them."