Fenwick's fast start finishes Fremd

Going against five-time defending Dundee-Crown Charger Classic champion Fenwick, Fremd's girls basketball team never backed down Monday.

The Vikings just wish they could get back the first 12 minutes.

That's when they fell behind by 13 points and could never recover as the Friars finished with a 51-41 victory in the quarterfinal match.

Fenwick (14-1) will face Prospect (12-2) in today's semifinal.

Fremd (10-4) moves into the loser's bracket to face St. Charles North (9-5) at 3:30 p.m. The winner battles for the fifth place on Wednesday.

Just like it was 10 days ago in a 58-50 loss at Fremd, Fenwick was without All-American and Duke recruit Tricia Liston (mono).

But this time, the Friars had a new game plan.

"Our goal was to take away their perimeter shooting," said Fenwick coach Dave Power.

"It's been a big adjustment without Tricia but we're starting to come together," said sophomore forward Meredith Boardman, who scored 10 points for Fenwick. "We wanted to come out strong and not get down early like last time. Fenwick doesn't like to lose to the same team twice."

Senior Gianna Abruzzo poured in a game-high 24 points for Fremd, which trailed 24-11 midway through the second quarter.

In the second half, Abruzzo scored 16 of the Vikes' 24 points.

The other 5 points were a 3-pointer by freshman Ashley McConnell and 2 free throws by sophomore Megan Hubbard.

Fremd never got closer than 8 points in the second half.

"As close as we were, we never got close enough," said Abruzzo, who also grabbed 9 rebounds. "We could never chip away enough at that lead."

McConnell also pulled down 4 rebounds while Taylor Glassmann, Megan Gray and Hubbard each had two.

"I thought Gianna did a great job stepping up in the second half," said Fremd coach Dave Yates.

"They were definitely taller than us," said Abruzzo, who made 9 of 10 free throws in the game and scored 13 points in the final quarter. "What helped us in our win over them was that we knocked down our outside shots. This time, we needed another answer and we didn't find it until it was too late.

"But they're a real good team. I've got to give them credit. Even without (Liston), they are still a very tough team. They have adjusted well without her."

Yates felt the rough start for his team was costly.

"They (Fenwick) really got after us," he said. "But I thought we did a nice job hanging around right before half (6-0 run).

"You can't miss as many free throws as we did (8) in the second half and expect to hang around. We gave them a nice cushion to work with and that makes it tough.

"A lot of times when you play a team like Fenwick, you expect them to have big runs. They had one to start the game but we didn't give them any more so I was pleased with that."