Fremd's early spurt does in Lake Zurich
Fremd senior Olivia Hill scored 6 of her 10 points in a 40-second span midway through the first quarter.
That was enough to send the Vikings to a quick early lead and propel them to a 53-34 nonconference girls basketball win over visiting Lake Zurich in Palatine Thursday night.
Hill's two 3-point plays before 4 minutes were gone in the game staked Fremd to a 14-6 advantage.
“We were really excited to play Lake Zurich at home,” said Hill, a 6-foot forward. “All of us were excited to come out with the energy. They (LZ) have a lot of really good shooters and Ella (Bears senior guard Gilbertson) is a great player, so our focus was to get out on their shooters, keep talking and communicating through our defense.”
Emily Klaczek scored a game high 15 points for the Vikings, while Alayna Soukup had 14 for the Bears.
Lake Zurich was strong on the glass, outrebounding Fremd as Soukup recorded 7 rebounds and teammate Elyssa Adams had 5 boards, all in the fourth quarter.
“Fremd is a tough team,” said Soukup, a sophomore and two-year starter, “but I believe in our team. I thought our offense worked well tonight — just passing, cutting, moving to get open. We try to do the little things, rebounding, defense and hustle plays.”
A couple of late first half steals from Klaczek, leading to a bucket and free throw, helped put Fremd up 26-16 at halftime.
Then the Vikings scored the first 6 points of the second half on baskets from Klaczek and Grace LaBarge and 2 free throws by Katie Hansen.
A 3-pointer from Soukup helped cut into the lead, but Klaczek responded with two 3-pointers of her own to put Fremd up 38-21.
The Vikings (2-0) built a 22-point lead in the fourth, and LZ could only get as close as 47-31 after 3s from Gilbertson and freshman Emma Barker.
“I was pleased with our effort,” said Fremd coach Dave Yates. “We want to be a good defensive team, we've got some size and some length and I think it's hard to score against us sometimes.”
Fremd finished 7-of-23 from the 3-point line while Lake Zurich was 6-of-22. LaBarge added 11 points for the Vikings.
Gilbertson had 10 points for the Bears.
“We're finding our way right now,” said Bears coach Chris Bennett. “Coming down here and playing against great competition shows us what we need to work on.”