Fremd holds off Bartlett for 7th place at Dundee-Crown
Fremd was just a bit more determined than Bartlett Wednesday afternoon.
The Vikings got off to a good start, withstood Bartlett's run back into the game, and then held off the Hawks down the stretch to take a 56-53 win in the seventh place game of the 27th Annual Charger Classic girls basketball tournament at Dundee-Crown.
The win salvaged a 2-2 tournament for the Vikings, who lost to Fenwick and St. Charles North the previous two nights.
"We hit a rut the last couple of games, but Fenwick and St. Charles North are awesome programs," said Fremd senior forward Gianna Abruzzo, who led her team with 18 points and hit 5 of 6 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. "Today we came back and showed what kind of team we are. Bartlett's a good team but we were able to pull it out. It was a good win."
The Vikings (11-5) jumped out to a 9-0 lead and were ahead 20-13 after one quarter before the Hawks (9-7) started mounting a comeback. By halftime, Bartlett had inched to within 32-30, using 8 of Jacki Gulczynski's game-high 24 points in the second quarter to fuel the comeback.
"We got off to a really good start but we knew they were a good team and we didn't expect a blowout," said Fremd coach Dave Yates. "We've been in a lot of close games and it was nice to see our kids not get rattled tonight."
Instead, Fremd did the rattling. After a nip-and-tuck third quarter that saw Bartlett grab a 43-39 lead by period's end, the Vikings turned up the pressure and caused the Hawks 6 of their 16 turnovers in the telltale fourth quarter.
Fremd, which made 8 of 11 from the line in the fourth quarter, tied the game at 43 on 2 free throws from Taylor Glassmann (11 points) just 16 seconds into the fourth quarter. From that point, there was one tie and four lead changes until Fremd's Megan Gray (10 points) found the lane wide open for a drive and layup to give the Vikings a 54-53 lead with 1:07 to play. Bartlett turned the ball over with 54 seconds left and the Vikes were able to run the clock down to: 21 before Abruzzo was fouled. She missed the first but made the second to give Fremd a 55-53 lead.
Bartlett missed a shot, got the rebound and missed again but Gulczynski was fouled with 5 seconds left. However, she missed the front end of the bonus, Gray was fouled on the rebound and made 1 of 2 to make it a 56-53 game. Bartlett tried a baseball, er, softball pass but junior Nicole Beck, also a softball player, tossed the basketball too long. Bartlett sophomore Kristin Conniff stole Fremd's inbounds pass at midcourt but her heave from the sideline to tie at the buzzer came up short.
"We did a nice job on the last couple of possessions," Yates said. "(Bartlett) is bigger and stronger but we kept battling."
Neither team shot particularly well, Bartlett going 23-for-59 and Fremd 17 of 49. But the Vikings were 16 of 23 from the line while Bartlett was just 5 of 8. The Hawks shot only 1 free throw in the second half.
Bartlett coach Denise Sarna looked at the big picture of the four-day tournament, in which the Hawks were 1-3.
"This one's a heartbreaker," she said. "None of us like losing but one of the things we wanted to work on here was cutting down our turnovers and overall we did that. We played really good competition and the turnovers are coming down so that's a point to grow on. We made better adjustments tonight, but we might need to look at some changes with matchup issues. Sometimes you have to mix things up a little."
Gulczynski, who caught the eye of many with a strong tournament, had 11 rebounds as the Hawks won the glass battle 36-27.
"We had our ups and downs here but we played really good teams," Gulczynski said. "We just have to learn from this. Hopefully this will catapult us to better things."
The Hawks also got a strong game from sophomore Lisa Palmer, who came off the bench to score 11 points and grab 13 rebounds.
"Lisa came off the bench with a double-double and it's huge when you can do that," Sarna said.