Fremd hands Barrington its first MSL West loss
With finals week beginning Monday, Fremd girls basketball players will shift a lot of their attention to the books.
On Saturday night at Barrington, the Vikings booked their biggest conference win of the season.
But Vikes coach Dave Yates wasn’t about to give his team’s performance an ‘A’ after the 60-46 triumph.
“To go into their gym against a team with 14 wins, it’s a good win,” he said. “Of course, we have high standards so there were parts of the game we weren’t pleased with.”
Fremd, ranked No. 7 in the Class 4A state poll, improved to 15-2 and 4-0 in the Mid-Suburban West while the Fillies are 14-4 and 3-1.
Trailing 9-5 after a 15-footer from the baseline by Barrington’s Angie Kirchoff (game-high 20 points), Fremd went on a 14-2 run to close out the first quarter and extended the lead to 32-18 when Bryana Hopkins assisted on Erin Lenahan’s layup with 3:25 left in the first half.
Barrington climbed back to within 11 points twice in the third quarter and got to within 54-44 on back-to-back 3-pointers by Kirchoff and Aoife Callanan with 2:31 left.
“When we had to score and keep the lead at double digits, we did it,” Yates said., “To play a team with 14 wins at their place and not play our best basketball, I guess I’ll take it.”
Junior Haley Gorecki led the Vikes with 19 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.
“I thought Carrie Madden did a nice job on her,” said Barrington coach Babbi Barreiro. “Haley is a special player but I thought we limited her looks.”
“Barrington is a good team,” Gorecki said. “They kept coming back when we’d build the lead. And we shouldn’t let that happen. There can’t just be certain moments when we play well.
“But it’s conference game so it’s good to win. We’ve just got to keep playing strong, We’ve got Palatine next (Friday) so that’s a big game, too.”
Sophomore forward Megan Talbot had a big game for Barrington with 16 points and 19 rebounds.
“Huge game for Megan,” Barreiro said. “She played the whole game and it’s real credit to her. And I thought Angie (Kirchoff) played one of her best games. She took over when she had to.”
Yates had a lot of balance in his scoring with Hannah LaBarge (9 points, 2 rebounds), Brianna Lewis (8 points, 4 assists, 3 steals), Grace Tworek (8 points, 3 rebounds) and Hopkins (8 rebounds, 3 steals). Erica Simios added 5 points with 2 assists.
“We had some unforced errors at key times,” Barreiro added. “Overall, I loved the effort and I love my team. We worked very had the whole game.”