Fremd brings down Buffalo Grove
Fremd senior Jack Konopka was clearly hurting Tuesday night when he left the 36th annual Elgin Holiday boys basketball tournament after turning his left ankle in the final two minutes of a loss to Neuqua Valley.
Early Wednesday evening, the 6-foot-5, 265-pound Konopka was putting a big hurt on Buffalo Grove in the tourney's third round. The Northwestern football recruit scored a career-high 22 points and had 13 rebounds as Fremd (8-5) came back in the fourth quarter for a 72-62 victory at Chesbrough Field House in the matchup of Mid-Suburban League schools.
“I was kind of nervous about that but I know Jack is a tough player and you have to suck it up,” said Fremd senior guard Quinton Brown, who scored 18 of his 20 points in the second half and 12 in the fourth quarter.
“(Tuesday) night it felt a lot worse than this morning,” said Konopka, who shot 6-for-10 from the field and 10-for-15 at the free-throw line. “But there were no bones about it, I was coming out here to play.”
Now the Vikings will play for fifth place at 5 p.m. Today against Las Vegas Centennial (9-2), a 79-62 winner over Rolling Meadows. They survived a 32-point barrage with seven 3-pointers by senior Nick Prus of BG (8-4), which plays MSL East rival Rolling Meadows for seventh at 1:30 p.m.
Fremd made Konopka, who came in averaging 7.8 points a game, a big point of emphasis since BG's 6-7 junior Sam Wacker (11 ppg) was out after injuring his ankle Tuesday night and 6-6 Kevin Tennenbaum fouled out with 5:49 to play. Konopka hit a short jumper, 2 free throws and a drive as Fremd went ahead to stay at 55-48 after an 11-point run where Prus also got a technical foul.
“He told me (Tuesday) after we left he was going to play and I thought he looked pretty agile,” said Fremd coach Bob Widlowski. “We made a concerted effort once Tennenbaum got in foul trouble to get the ball to him.”
The Bison trailed 19-9 but Prus got rolling and scored his team's last 11 points of the first half. His fourth 3, an off-balance shot just before the horn, gave them a 27-26 lead and it grew to 38-30 with 4:05 left in the third on Jeff Zabrin's rebound basket.
But freshman Riley Glassman (9 points, 5 rebounds), who was called up after Zach Monaghan was hurt in a car accident last weekend, hit a runner on the baseline and a 3 and Brown got rolling with three straight drives in an 11-2 tear.
“I saw our team was down and with Zach out,” Brown said, “the key is I have to be more aggressive to the basket with my scoring.”
Widlowski also thought Jim Scharfe (12 points) and Ken Leonard adjusted on the fly to give Prus, who was 10-for-18 from the field and 7-for-13 on 3s, tougher looks. Fremd went 21-for-26 at the line in the fourth quarter - as Brown was 10-for-12 - and finished 29-for-40.
“A lot of guys are stepping up and it helps when you have five guys on the floor who can score,” said Konopka, who had his previous high of 19 points Monday against Rockford Guilford. “(Glassman) has been really phenomenal and ‘Q' was getting to the hole at will and that really helped us.”
BG also had three players foul out and the closest it could get was 59-55 on a short baseline jumper by Dan Recht (12 points, 10 rebounds) with 1:50 to play.
“The scoreboard perhaps didn't reflect it but we took a positive step forward today,” said BG coach Ryan O'Connor, whose team beat Meadows 56-47 on Dec. 9. “We played hard (Tuesday) but we were a little more united today and played as a team.
“We had a lot of things working against us but we stuck together through it and that's what I was most happy with.”
Las Vegas Centennial 79, Rolling Meadows 62: Junior guard Brian Nelms scored 18 points and hit two 3s to lead Meadows (4-8), which trailed 35-25 at halftime. Paul Volkman added 10 points and Tyler Gaedele hit three 3s for 9 points. Aaseem Dixon scored 21 points for Centennial (9-2).
Glenbrook South 57, Hoffman Estates 22: After its two best offensive games of the season, Hoffman (2-9) scored just 13 points in the final three quarters and will play for 11th place at noon today against Rockford Guilford. Austin Terry and Anthony Christianson had 5 points apiece for the Hawks.
Corey McMahon had 14 points for Glenbrook South (6-6), which plays Batavia for the consolation title at 3:15 p.m.