Fremd rattles off another close win, dumps Loyola

Coach Dave Yates knows one thing about his Fremd girls basketball team.

"Not a lot rattles this group," he said.

The basketball was sure rattling the rim in the final five seconds of Fremd's dramatic 41-38 victory over Loyola Monday night in Wilmette.

The Ramblers (10-10) narrowly missed two dramatic shots.

With her team trailing 39-38, Loyola junior Shaquina Scott's 12-foot pull-up jumper from the baseline circled the rim but failed to drop through the net with three seconds left.

Always-alert Fremd veteran Gianna Abruzzo was right there for the rebound when she was fouled with 1.6 seconds.

She calmly made both free throws to give Fremd its final margin of victory.

Then the Vikings (14-5) watched Northwestern recruit Meghan McKeown narrowly miss a half-court shot that rattled off the rim and ended up over the backboard.

"That was a really an intense moment," Abruzzo said of the final seconds. "I had missed some free throws earlier in the quarter so I knew I had to step up."

Junior Megan Gray led the Mid-Suburban West leaders with 10 points while Taylor Glassmann added 8. Sophomore Megan Hubbard and freshman Ashley McConnell each had 6.

Abruzzo was in exact same position when Buffalo Grove missed a layup that rolled off the rim last Friday in the final seconds of the Vikings' 44-43 win.

"I knew this time when it came off the rim, I had to grab it," Abruzzo said.

The Vikings could have grabbed a bigger lead but they missed 9 free throws in the final 3:49 and ended up 12 of 22 for the game.

"Had we made our free throws, it wouldn't have gone down to the last shot," Yates said.

"Just a good old-fashioned barn burner," Glassmann added.

The Vikings had five 3-pointers in the game, including 2 by Hubbard and one apiece by Glassmann, McConnell and junior Bridget Kubis.

"This was a pretty exciting environment," Yates said. "It was their Teacher Appreciation night and Senior night. I was pleased with how we played. They made some runs at us but we strayed with it."

Both teams played man-to-man defense for nearly the entire 32 minutes and Fremd led 15-12 at the break.

"To hold them to 12 points in their gym was great but we weren't scoring much at the same time," Glassmann said.

"As much as we were struggling to score, we played great defense," Abruzzo said. "Both teams had similar styles of defense. It was a grind all the way."

Loyola, which plays Prospect at 11:30 a.m. Saturday in the Willowbrook Shootout, was led by senior Audrey Gaughan's 16 points.

"They let us back in the game by missing free throws," said Loyola coach Jeremy Schoenecker. "But we let them hang around by missing layups. I thought both teams fought very hard and someone had to come up on the short end."