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Fremd comes back at Conant

Fremd had to dig deep for this one - really deep.

The visiting Vikings dug themselves a huge hole, a 13-point deficit in the third quarter in their Mid-Suburban West boys basketball game at Conant on Friday, but they scratched and clawed and climbed out to escape with a 37-35 victory.

Conant scored the first 6 points of the third quarter to lead the defending MSL champion 28-15 before Fremd turned the game around with a 16-0 run, holding the Cougars scoreless for nearly eight and a half minutes, a drought that lasted until 3:45 remained in the game.

The key sequence in Fremd's comeback came when Kyle Sliwa drained a 3-pointer following an offensive rebound off of his missed free throw, giving Fremd its first lead, 29-28, and moments later Zach Schoffstall scored to make it 31-28.

The teams traded points until Payton Kim's free throws with 10.4 seconds remaining gave the Vikings (7-1, 2-0) what appeared to be a safe 37-32 lead.

But Danny Sotos banked in a 3-pointer with 3.6 seconds left, cutting the margin to 2. Chris Dolce stole the inbounds pass at mid-court and tossed up what would have been the game-winner had it not bounced off the rim at the buzzer.

"We talked all week long about this going to be a possession game," Fremd coach Bob Widlowski said. "We feel fortunate to get out with the win tonight."

Sliwa came off the bench for Fremd and scored a game-high 16 points, including three 3s. He contributed 3 of 4 from the line in the fourth quarter, as the Vikings converted 9 of 10.

"Coach was kind of on us at halftime," Sliwa said. "We were getting killed on rebounding and getting to loose balls. We knew we could come back."

"We thought they controlled the tempo," Widlowski said. "They had the ball 80 percent of the time in the first and second quarters."

"I thought we played great for 2 and a half quarters," Conant coach Tom McCormack said. "We were like Jekyll & Hyde. We're not going to beat anyone good with 19 turnovers.

"I thought we made some progress, but until the 19 turnovers go away, we shouldn't expect much different," McCormack said.

The Cougars (2-5, 0-2) led 10-6 after the first quarter and 22-15 at halftime. Sotos had 10 of his team-best 15 before intermission.

Schoffstall scored 10 for the Vikings, and Conant's Dolce scored 9.

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