Fremd wins defensive struggle

Fremd senior forward Garrett Peters stepped up when he had to Wednesday night at Fenton’s Chuck Mitchell Tournament.

Peters, a senior, hit 7-of-9 free throws down the stretch to help the Vikings improve to a 2-1 record with a 29-24 win over South Elgin.

“It was a great defensive low-scoring game,” said Peters. “You’ve got to love the defense and that’s what it came down to tonight. The free throws won it for us and we hit them down the stretch.”

Fremd never trailed against the 1-1 Storm, but never could pull more than 6 points ahead at 19-13 to end the third quarter.

South Elgin pulled to within 24-23 with 58 seconds left on Kris Fojas’ layup basket.

Peters connected on 2 free-throw attempts for a 26-23 lead at 0:45. Matt Downing connected on 1 of 2 shots for the Storm at 0:28 to trail 26-24.

Fremd turned over the ball with 16.2 seconds left in the game but the Storm gave it right back with 13.4 left on a traveling violation.

Peters was fouled with 11.8 left and hit both ends of a one-and-bonus situation for a 28-23 lead.

Peters then knocked away the ball from South Elgin with Adam Gorecki recovering. Gorecki (10 points, 11 rebounds) hit 1 of 2 free throws to finish the scoring.

“I was pleased to see him step up with the senior leadership,” said Fremd coach Bob Widlowski. “He hit some big free throws for us. He had a injured ankle last year and missed two months of the season.

“We limited their penetration. They have a lot of offensive weapons. We held a big rebounding advantage (27-19) and they were not able to get second-chance points.”

“I thought we did a good job against their size with a great effort and enthusiasim,” said South Elgin coach Chaz Taft. “Things just didn’t happen for us down the stretch.”

Eric Stazy led South Elgin with 6 points.