Boys basketball: Nelson’s clutch 3-point play lifts Fremd over Stevenson in thriller
After rolling to victories in the opening round of Wheeling’s 46th annual Hardwood Classic, Fremd and Stevenson met in a quarterfinal showdown Thursday night in Wheeling.
The very competitive contest had some big surges by both teams. But when all was said and done Fremd pulled out an exciting 59-57 victory to advance to the semifinals Friday at 8:45 p.m. against Libertyville or Glenbrook North.
Trailing 57-56, Fremd reserve Chase Nelson (8 points) came through with a 3-point play with 51.7 seconds to play for a 59-57 lead. That lead held up as an outside shot by Stevenson's Aidan Bardic was off the mark with one second to play to give the Vikings the narrow win.
The Patriots (7-4) led 11-4 early on, and 19-15 after one quarter. But Fremd outscored the Vikings 21-9 in the second quarter for a 36-28 halftime lead. The Vikings wound up going on a 19-4 run to take their biggest lead at 42-28 early in the third quarter.
Then came a 9-point run by the Pats before they tied the game at 46-46 on a 3-pointer by Rocco Pagliocca (game-high 23 points) with 7:46 to play.
The game was a dogfight from that point on with neither team being able to pull away. Fremd was led by Jordan Williams with 20 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists while teammate Rafael Pinto (5 rebounds) scored 16 of his 18 points in the first half.
"Stevenson is really good, they're very talented, and they're really well coached," said Fremd coach Mike Brown, whose team shot 44% from the field. "I'm proud of our guys for being really resilient and tough and finding a way to get it done."
Atticus Richmond had a big game for Stevenson with 16 points and 12 rebounds while teammate Donny Williams had 8 points. Tommy Moffett had 8 rebounds for Fremd and teammate Samuel Hirsch had 5 points. Liam Curtin had 5 rebounds and 4 points for the Patriots.
"Towards the end our offense wasn't working, but we stuck with it and our coach installed the resilience in us," said Williams. "We finally waited for our time to shine, and then we got our momentum. We've got to thank Chase Nelson for those last few buckets. He got us back in it and that's what really helped us."
Besides the game-winning 3-point play, Nelson also hit a huge 3-pointer to give the Vikes a 56-55 lead with 1:47 to go. A driving basket by Bardic gave the Patriots their final lead at 57-56 with 1:01 left.
"When you lose by one possession it's lots of things, and we were 7-for-13 from the free-throw line so that doesn't help," said Stevenson coach Will Benson, whose team shot 43% from the floor. "We gave up 36 points in the first half and 23 in the second half and we did a good job of guarding them and limiting them to one shot. I was proud of the competitiveness we showed against a really good team."