Fremd shows its talent in rout of Johnsburg

One talented senior in Angie Zara.

One talented freshman in Brianna Wooldridge.

And in between, lots and lots more talent.

Fremd's girls basketball team had it all on display Friday night as a second-quarter surge led to a 36-22 halftime lead.

The host Vikings then cruised home in the second half for a 72-43 triumph over Johnsburg in the Turkey Thriller game.

All five starters for Fremd (2-0) reached double figures in its first home game.

Leading the way, was 6-foot-3 sophomore Grace LaBarge, who finished with 15 points, including two big 3-pointers late in the first half and early in the second.

"Grace did a nice job," said Fremd coach Dave Yates. " She came in and hit some big shots. I know she didn't have a great first game (4 points) and I think that disappointed her. She's a competitor. She has length, can knock down shots and can put the ball on the floor."

Same goes for many of the Vikes.

"We have a very deep bench," said Zara (4 points, 2 assists, 1 steal), a co-captain with juniors Emily Klaczek and Olivia Hill. " We've all been working so hard in practice and everyone is an asset on the team. I know I'm the only senior, but on this team, we are not lacking leadership. Everyone does a great job with that."

Wooldridge has been doing a great job in her first two games, scoring 9 points in her rookie debut on Wednesday at Cary-Grove and then 13 points on Friday with 4 rebounds, 3 steals and 1 assist.

"Everyone has been so nice," said Wooldridge, who played at Immanuel Lutheran in Palatine along with sophomore teammate Ruthie Montella two years ago. "They've all made me feel so welcome. It helped playing with them over the summer. Also a lot of them were freshmen on the varsity themselves."

Also scoring double figures were Montella (12 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds), Klaczek (11 points, 3 steals, 2 rebounds, 1 assist) and Hill (10 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 assist).

"They're (Fremd) very athletic," said Johnsburg coach Erin Thomas. "You can see they're well coached. They play very tough defense, very aggressive and very high energy. But I'm happy with how our girls competed. We just have to clean up a few things and I think we'll be fine."

Johnsburg pulled to within 12-11 in the final minute of the first quarter before Fremd went on a 10-0 run that included a 3-point play by LaBarge and 3-pointer by Montella.

The Skyhawks (0-2) were led by senior Megan Madsen (11 points) and her twin Morgan (9 points).

"We were able to play in spurts," Yates said. "When we were able to execute what we wanted to do defensively - making sure their twins weren't getting good looks - I thought we were in good shape. We came out and defended way better in the second half, holding the twins to 4 points so that was big for us."

Madeline McCarthy came in and scored all 7 of her points in the fourth quarter with 6 rebounds and 3 assists.

"We have a lot of different kids who can be threats," Yates added. "Every one of our starters can go in double digits. It's not like last year when Emily (Klaczek) was basically out only returning player from the year before. Everyone was new so we leaned on her. Now it's different where we have a lot of kids who have experience."