Deerfield battles back, holds off Fremd

Deerfield junior Josh Maize says his team is the epitome of even-Steven.

“We have a little fight in us,” said Maize. “We had a tough loss (Tuesday, to Naperville Central), so we were determined to get a win.

“But it's been like that all season — we're a bounce-back team, and any time we lose we come back strong.”

It's not like the Warriors have piled up the losses. They've only suffered 2 so far, and the play of Maize was a big reason the Warriors rebounded — literally — Wednesday against Fremd.

Maize came off the bench to power his way to a game high 8 boards in a 43-38 win over the Vikings at the Wheeling Hardwood Classic, and his 5 consecutive points over the third and fourth quarters proved decisive.

Fremd could manage only 2 points in the final quarter in the loss.

“They (Deerfield) were able to control the pace of the game,” said Vikes coach Bob Widlowski. “They had some very efficient possessions in the fourth quarter.”

The shot selection of Fremd was a bit off for most of the game but they were able to stay close by canning 3-of-3 from behind the 3-point line in the second quarter, two from Kyle Sliwa and one from sophomore Ryan Martin.

The Vikings grabbed their first advantage of the game at 33-32 with 3:20 remaining in the third quarter on a 3-point play by Sliwa, who drove hard to the basket for a layup then hit the free throw.

“We were able to get the lead,” said Widlowski, “but we've got to find a way to finish and expand a lead when we've got one.”

The game was tied at 36 when Maize hit a layup at the third-quarter buzzer to extend give the momentum back to the Warriors.

Then the junior sank a free throw and another lay in to open the fourth to give the Warriors some breathing room.

Sliwa sank 2 free throws — the only Vikes' scores of the final quarter — to bring Fremd back within 41-38.

Then both teams played keepaway on extended possessions, but Fremd was able to get the ball back with 43.9 seconds left looking for the tie.

But after working the ball around, a 2-point attempt by Fremd just rimmed out with 8 seconds left.

“We wanted to take any score we could,” Widlowski said of the missed layup and the decision to take the 2-point shot instead of going for a 3 to tie. “Then we were going to call time out.”

But the shot missed and Deerfield (10-2) got a runout and basket with seconds left to account for the final score.

Sliwa scored 11 points for Fremd while 6-8 senior Patrick Benka, doing the dirty work inside, finished with 7 points.

Payton Kim scored 7 for the Vikes, which fell to 10-4. Alex Casieri scored 11 for Deerfield.

Maize added that it was the “D” that led the Warriors to the victory.

“Our coaches have been harping all season that we've got to get some stops,” said Maize. “We've been bad at that. Today, we finally were able to get stops after our offense shut down.

“After that it was just a question of who wanted it more.”