Lake Forest shoots down Fremd
Fremd went from hot to cold to finished Friday night in Palatine.
The Vikings, who were coming off a superb effort Tuesday against Waukegan, couldn’t get many shots to fall Friday in their 51-33 loss to Lake Forest in a Class 4A boys basketball regional title game.
“We just couldn’t get any balls to drop in tonight,” Fremd coach Bob Widlowski said. “We had open looks and good shots. It just wasn’t our night.”
Fremd, which shot 23 percent (12-for-52) had trouble dealing with Lake Forest’s height, with the Scouts averaging 6-foot-8 across the front.
“We are one of the bigger teams in our conference,” said senior guard Garrett Peters, who finished with 13 points for the Vikings. “Tonight they had three guys bigger than our tallest guy. It definitely altered some of our shots. We had some open looks but we just couldn’t knock them down.”
The 13th-seeded Vikings (17-12) converted just 1 of their first 13 shots, yet only trailed 10-6 early in the second quarter.
The Vikings then seemed to get on track, as Adam Gorecki (13 points, 8 rebounds) scored on an offensive rebound and then added a free throw to complete a 3-point play. Peters nailed a 3 on their next possession for a 12-10 lead with 5:24 left in the half.
However, that would be the last points of the half for Fremd as No. 5 Lake Forest (18-10) closed the half on a 9-0 run to lead 19-12 at the break. Fremd converted just 3 of 19 shots for the half.
The Vikings’ offensive struggles continued into the second half until Peters heated up. The senior hit his next 4 shots as Fremd closed to 26-24 after three quarters.
“I didn’t do much in the first half,” Peters said. “I just wanted to give my team a charge there in the second half.”
From there, Lake Forest’s Evan Boudreaux took over. The 6-7 freshman ignited a 9-0 run as the Scouts began to pull away. Boudreaux was also a force on the boards, grabbing 10 of his 19 rebounds in the final quarter as he finished with 13 points and 5 blocks.
“I feel bad for our seniors,” Widlowski said. “They played hard for us all year and it is a tough way to go out.”
Lake Forest, which got 14 points from Sam Downey, will meet top-seeded Warren (24-3) in Tuesday’s 7:30 p.m. sectional semifinal at Barrington.