Fremd seniors play their part in victory over Glenbrook North

Fremd showed it has interchangeable parts as part of its defensive machine.

Due to senior day recognition, the Vikings changed their normal starting lineup to include all five of their seniors who see regular minutes.

And from there, the Vikings then began to have different lineups on the floor throughout the game.

But it didn't seem to matter who was on the court for Fremd, because their defense was running like a well-oiled machine. The Vikings forced Glenbrook North away from the basket and cruised to a 51-36 nonconference victory Saturday in Palatine.

"It was my first start in a while," Dylan Simios said. "I wasn't playing as well, and I talked to my coach and he said to keep being aggressive.

"We really hang our hats on our defense. We know that if we stop people, we can turn that into our offense."

Fremd coach Bob Widlowski, whose team allowed just 11 field goals, like the way his team rotated on defense.

"I thought our seniors did a real nice job for us today," Widlowski said. "We were very confident that we could execute on both ends of the floor. I thought our rotations were real strong and we held them to 36 points, which was a pretty good effort."

Fremd (17-5) led 25-16 at the half and the Vikings increased it to a 37-22 bulge late in the third quarter. Glenbrook North (12-8) caught fire for a brief moment and got the lead down to 37-26 after a pair of steals. But Kyle Sliwa and Ryan Martin each hit a 3, and the Vikings were on their way.

"I thought we played real well at the end of the third quarter coming out of that timeout," Widlowski said. "We really did a nice job of executing both offensively and defensively."

Peyton Kim, who led the Vikings with 11 points, said his team's ability to get off to a fast start helped.

"It was fun that it was senior night," said Kim, who was one of the six seniors honored before the game. "We didn't want to come out and be losing. I thought we did a good job of coming out hot and definitely didn't let them back in the game."

All nine of the Fremd regulars got on the scorebook. Sliwa and Martin each had 9 points, Dylan Simios had 8 points and Samson Oladimeji added 5 points.

"They are a great program," Widlowski said. "And we will be playing them again in the next few seasons."

It took a few years, but Bob Widlowski and Fremd finally got a little payback on Glenbrook North.

Widlowski, then in his first year as Fremd's head coach, lost to Glenbrook North and Jon Scheyer 51-38 in the sectionals at Barrington in 2003, and to Scheyer and the Spartans 66-63 in 2005.