Monaghan, Fremd finally get regional title
Smoldering inside of Zach Monaghan for more than a year was the bitter memory of a dream season that ended way too soon for Fremd.
A stunning first-round postseason exit last March was a fuel that drove Monaghan all season. Making sure there was no repeat disappointment carried over to his teammates.
Fittingly, Lake Forest’s final shot Friday night fell into Monaghan’s hands. The third-year varsity starter took the ball and nearly fired it off the ceiling of his home gym as Fremd won its Class 4A regional championship game 44-38.
“We wanted this one,” Monaghan said after scoring 28 points and hitting five 3-pointers. “I can’t stress how good this feels. All of the guys from day one were locked in and it feels good.”
The South Dakota State-bound Monaghan got fifth-seed Fremd (19-9) rolling with 11 first-quarter points. He started and finished an 11-point third-quarter run to wipe out a 26-21 lead by No. 13 Lake Forest (13-16).
And he scored 6 of the Vikings’ last 9 points to give them their 12th regional title and first since 2003. They’ll play in Tuesday’s 7:30 p.m. Barrington sectional semifinal against top-seed Warren (27-3), a 65-49 winner over Hersey in the Wheeling regional.
“He had a huge game for us at the right time,” said Fremd coach Bob Widlowski. “It’s a testament to his competitiveness. He wanted to win and our team followed along.”
Quinton Brown, Jim Scharfe, Ken Leonard, Jack Konopka, Garrett Peters, Riley Glassmann and Joe Leaf all played their roles to free up Monaghan to shoot 9-for-18 from the field and 5-for-10 on 3s.
“Everyone contributed and it was a complete team win,” Monaghan said.
“He made some tough shots and he’s a really nice player,” said Lake Forest coach Phil LaScala, who ran a variety of defenders at Monaghan. “They do a great job of getting him open and they’re a very unselfish team.
“I thought if we held them under 50 points we really had a good shot at winning. We struggled a little bit getting into our offense.”
Monaghan hitting 3 first-quarter 3s had an impact on the other end as Fremd gave up its second-fewest points of the season. Lake Forest shot 48.5 percent (16-for-33) but committed 16 turnovers that turned into 15 points.
“When he started off hot we responded on defense, too,” Leonard said. “To hold them to 38 points, any time you do that, you have a decent shot to win the game.”
But Lake Forest started thinking it had a shot at the upset after Monaghan scored 16 of the Vikings’ 19 points in the first 11:24. They managed just 2 free throws in the next 8:47.
“For about 2½ minutes we were standing around and watching him and expecting him to hit 3s,” Leonard said.
“We talked at halftime that we can’t stand around and watch Zach with the ball,” Widlowski said. “We had to move.”
Especially as Lake Forest moved ahead 26-21 on consecutive 3s by reserve Jack Ford and junior Thomas Durrett (10 points).
“Coach had talked about our experience all week,” Monaghan said. “We preached the whole week that we had to stay together because any game could be our last at this point.”
Monaghan nailed a 3 off a Peters feed and After a turnover, Leonard wheeled through the lane for a 3-point play to put the Vikings ahead to stay. Monaghan split 2 free throws after a steal but Glassmann, the freshman called up to the varsity at Christmas, slipped inside to score off the miss.
Monaghan’s pull-up jumper capped the 11-point outburst that put the Vikings ahead 32-26.
Lake Forest got within 35-32 with the ball but Leonard’s steal led to Monaghan’s 2 free throws at 2:58. A Monaghan layup at 2:14 made it 39-32 and Fremd was on its way to the long-awaited net-cutting celebration.
“It feels great,” Leonard said.