Forward-thinking Fremd doesn't let up at Elk Grove

There are many components that make up a successful boys basketball team.

Saturday night at Elk Grove, Fremd did not let its emotional win over Palatine the previous night determine how it would play Saturday night.

"When we met Saturday morning to discuss our scouting report," said Fremd coach Bob Widlowski, "the seniors kind of took over and stressed the importance of the game against Elk Grove."

Fremd took charge from the start and walked away with a 55-34 Mid-Suburban crossover win to improve to 6-1. The win was the second time the Vikings had recently defeated the Grenadiers; the other time was a 50-27 Fremd win at the Mundelein Thanksgiving tournament.

Fremd scored 12 points off 9 Grenadiers turnovers in the first half, building a 36-15 lead before coasting in the second half.

"Our offense keys off of turnovers," said Fremd junior forward Brian Dompke. "When we get the turnovers, it seems we get a lot of easy points. We had to stay up on them with our defense and not let them get open shots. We had to keep them out of the paint. Tonight we just wanted to keep the train rolling."

Dompke scored 10 of his 17 points in the first half and had 8 rebounds. Patrick Benka added 11 points as Fremd out-rebounded Elk Grove 24-13.

"Early in the second quarter we were down 10 points," said Elk Grove coach Anthony Furman. "We had a few good possessions but we turned the ball over. We would get a stop and then have a bad possession, and soon it became a 20-point lead for them. You have to play perfect to beat them. The game got out of hand quickly."

"We had 13 deflections with our defense in the first half," said Widlowski. "We started out with energy and that helped us get early scoring opportunities. We had a good mentality for tonight's game."

With Fremd leading 17-7 after one quarter, Ryan Martin scored 4 of his 6 points, with Connor Simios adding a 3-point play to go along with Dompke's basket to create a 9-0 run to extend the lead to 26-7 with 5:31 left in the first half.

Elk Grove committed 12 turnovers to Fremd's 6.

Joey Gatziolis led Elk Grove (4-3) with 12 points, and Fulton Wingba had 8 points. Junior center Stefan Pantovic blocked 4 shots.