Extra credit for Fremd girls in winning MSL West title

Fremd was staring at a 10-point halftime deficit and the prospect of sharing the Mid-Suburban West girls basketball title Friday night at Conant.

And it was pretty glaring what the Vikings needed to do to claim their first outright West title since 2004.

"We talked to our kids at halftime about picking up our intensity a lot," said fourth-year Fremd coach Dave Yates.

"Conant came out to win and played their hearts out," said Fremd junior Bridget Kubis. "I don't think we matched their intensity."

The Vikings and senior Gianna Abruzzo did after intermission as the tension built.

They forced overtime and Kubis scored the first 4 points as they escaped with a 40-35 victory at Perry Gymnasium in Hoffman Estates.

"We've been working so hard for it and it feels so good to finally get it," Kubis said of the Vikings' 13th division title.

"It's really exciting," Abruzzo said after scoring 10 of her 15 points after intermission. "Every year we've gotten closer and closer and this year we finally got it. We reached two of our huge goals tonight."

The other for Fremd (20-8, 9-1) was winning 20 games as it will host East champion Wheeling for the MSL title at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Getting there wasn't easy against a Conant (7-18, 2-8) team which had a 10-point lead after three quarters in the first meeting to open MSL West play.

A 9-point run the final 2:27 of the half put Conant up 26-16. Ashley Lindeman hit a 3-pointer, Kate Kauffold scored on a drive and had a perfect crosscourt transition bounce pass to Kelly Lomas for a layup.

"We weren't happy giving up that many points," Abruzzo said after Conant shot 12-for-23 the first half.

"We had to pick it up," Kubis said. "We knew we had to."

Conant scored just 9 points the final 20 minutes as it was 4-for-17 from the field with 12 turnovers. Taylor Glassmann, who is still fighting off the flu, put Fremd up 31-30 on a baseline jumper with 3:39 left in regulation.

Conant took its last lead at 33-31 on a 3 by Kim Davis (12 points) at 2:36. Fremd tied it 16 seconds later on freshman Ashley McConnell's drive and went to overtime after Abruzzo's steal in the lane in the closing seconds.

Kubis had missed her only 2 shots when she hit a 17-footer two minutes into overtime to put Fremd ahead to stay.

"The opportunity came and I just went with it," said Kubis, who hit 2 free throws 58 seconds later.

Glassmann hit all 4 of her free throws in the final 23 seconds as Fremd finished 12-for-18 while Conant didn't attempt one.

"They're a class group with good senior leaders and they deserve it," said Conant coach Dan Travers. "They did what a good team does. They found a way to win.

"I'm very proud of our girls. At this time of the season to still compete against a team winning the conference shows the character of our team and our players."