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Conant join MSL West leaders

It took just three days, but Conant is back in the Mid-Suburban West boys basketball race.

After knocking off Barrington on Thursday, Conant went into Fremd and dropped the Vikings in a defensive battle 42-30 on Saturday. The victory by Conant, coupled with Barrington's loss to Palatine, put the MSL West into a three-way tie for first with Conant, Fremd and Barrington.

"Defensively I thought our guys were really, really solid," said Conant coach Tom McCormack, whose team has now won 8 in a row to improve to 12-7 and 4-2 in the MSL West. "Our guys communicated, we got our hands in the passing lanes and we were able to create some deflections and we were able to get the defensive rebounds."

All of that spelled trouble for Fremd (13-4, 4-2). The Vikings shot just 20 percent (8 of 40) from the field. And the Vikes were just 2 of 22 from 3-point range, with one of those treys coming in final 10 minutes.

"It was pretty much a defensive game on both sides," McCormack said. "Most of their shots were threes. We thought we contested a good number of them."

Conant did a terrific job of contesting Fremd with their 1-2-2 zone. Thanks to the Cougars' size advantage with 6-foot-6 Chima Oduocha, 6-7 Ryan Davis and 6-10 Jordan Hughes rotating on the back line, Conant was able to keep Fremd away from the basket throughout the game.

"We were trying to make sure they weren't getting any open looks inside," said Davis, a freshman who finished with 7 points. "When you got size, they don't want to come into the middle."

With that size, Fremd had difficulty trying to find any open lanes. That led to the Cougars keeping Fremd out of the scorebook as they led 6-0 after one quarter.

Fremd was no slouch on its defensive end. The Vikings forced 5 first-quarter turnovers and 17 for the game to keep Conant close.

The Cougars led 11-0 with 5:47 left in the first half before Fremd finally broke through on a 3-pointer by Kyle Sliwa with 5:20 left in the first half. The teams went to the break at the half with the score more resembling a football game than basketball with Conant up 14-9.

"I thought we just didn't get the pace we wanted," Fremd coach Bob Widlowski said. "We knew that coming in that getting the pace was a key component.

"I thought in the second quarter we had the pace we were looking for. We were trying to speed them up. But Conant did a good job of getting that pace back."

Fremd closed to 18-15 with 3:28 left in the third quarter. But the Vikings missed a 3-pointer, and that was their last opportunity to tie.

Oduocha, who was a force defensively, sparked the Cougars on the offensive end. The junior scored with a basket down low and added a free throw as Conant scored 5 unanswered points to lead 23-15 late in the third quarter.

"We play a zone where the two bottom guys move around a lot," Oduocha said. "My teammates were also able to find me when I was open for a couple of baskets."

Conant was able to put the game away from the free throw line in the final 4:56 while leading 29-21. The Cougars converted 12 of 15 free throws down the stretch to clinch the victory.

Jimmy Sotos led the Cougards with 11 points, converting 9 of 10 free throws. Oduocha had 7 points and 5 rebounds, while Davis had 7 points along with Danny Sotos.

Fremd was led by Zach Schoffstall (11) and Sliwa, who came off the bench to score 6 points.

McCormack said his team, which will play at Barrington next Friday, has continued to improve with each game.

"Right now, we are just looking at getting better," McCormack said. "Early in the year, we were letting momentum get away from us. There are swings in every game, but we are doing more to have to get it back."

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