Fremd’s second-half surge sinks Milwaukee King
Fremd wasn’t one of the five Mid-Suburban League girls basketball teams which were either first, second or third in a Christmas tournament, but there was a good reason.
The Vikings were fifth in the Montini tourney, the most competitive gathering in the state.
Fremd went looking for more competition on Friday, participating in the Battle of the Borders Shootout at Zion-Benton High School.
And just like at Montini, the Vikings gave another quality showing and handed Milwaukee King High School a 64-58 loss.
Leading the way for Fremd (13-2) was junior guard Haley Gorecki (17 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assist, 2 steals), who was 12-for-14 at the free throw line and hit a 3-pointer.
Other top contributors were Bryana Hopkins (13 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists), Erica Simios (11 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals,) Briana Lewis (10 points, 7 assist, 3 steals) and Hannah LaBarge (6 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals).
Fremd trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half and was down 30-27 going into the third quarter against a Rufus King team that features a pair of top college prospects, both juniors.
“We have practiced once in the last 5 days,” said Fremd coach Dave Yates. “It was a very sloppy and uncharacteristic half for us. Rufus King is very athletic and made us pay whenever we did not take care of the ball.”
The Vikes scored the first 12 points of the third quarter to storm back into the lead, outscoring King 22-9 in the period.
“We came out with a much better focus and did a good job executing on offense,” Yates said. “Hannah LaBarge did an excellent job defending their star player (Illinois State recruit Shakeela Fowler had 3 points in the third quarter) and that is when then game swung to our favor. Hannah limited her touches and took her out of the flow for them.”
King cut the Fremd lead down to 5 points in the third quarter but the Vikes were able to put the game away by hitting 12-of-14 free throws.
“I thought we had good balanced scoring with four kids reaching double digits,” Yates said. “Erica Simios did a nice job scoring the for us. Bryana Hopkins dominated the boards during our third-quarter run.”
The Vikings return to action on Tuesday when they visit Wheeling.
“It was nice to see us come back from an early deficit and pick ourselves back up after a poor first half,” Yates said. “I can take the blame for the first half. We needed the time off but the result of the time off was very sloppy play. It was nice to play a very talented out of state team and see how we measured up.”
The rest of the MSL teams are scheduled to return to action on Monday and Tuesday.
Hersey won the Wheaton North tournament, while Wheeling was the champion at Warren. Rolling Meadows took second at Montini, Prospect was the runner-up at Dundee-Crown and Conant took third place at the Mundelein tournament.