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Rolling Meadows makes most of final quarter

After falling behind 18-4, Fremd's girls basketball team had to respond first.

The Vikings did, coming all the way back to take a 3-point lead over visiting Rolling Meadows with 48 seconds left in the third quarter.

Then it was the Mustangs' turn to respond.

They did, too, closing the game with a 19-2 run for a 59-45 triumph in the Mid-Suburban League second-place crossover game.

Junior guard Alexa Davis (9 points, 3 assists, 2 steals) made a big drive to the basket for a layup at the third-quarter buzzer, getting the Mustangs to within 43-42.

Meadows (19-8) then outscored the 2010-through-2017 MSL West champs 17-2 in the final period.

"It was a great team win," said Mustangs senior guard Melissa Spiwak (5 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 steals), who scored a game-high 21 points, with 7 coming in the decisive final quarter.

"We were just really working on defense. We wanted to pick it up in the second half. We were pushing the all a lot more, that was one of our goals. And we wanted to use our pack-line defense with a lot of help, because we knew they were driving to the basket a lot."

Lily Greifenstein helped drive the MSL East co-champs to their 18-4 advantage, as the junior guard scored 12 points (three 3-pointers) during the game's opening surge. She finished with 18 points, four 3-pointers and 2 steals.

Davis and sophomore guard Bridget Rolla (7 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals) hit back-to-back 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter to give Meadows a 50-43 lead, which it kept extending.

Fremd's only points in the quarter came on sophomore Maddy McCarthy's basket with 35 seconds left.

"We play those four guards (Spiwak, Greifenstein, Davis and Rolla) a lot of minutes" said Meadows coach Ryan Kirkorsky. "All four are so skilled and can do so many things on both ends of the court. When they're clicking and playing together, it's difficult to guard us."

Fremd (17-12) played its best basketball in the middle quarters when it outscored Meadows 32-20.

Junior guard Angie Zara scored all 7 of her points in the second quarter while sophomore guard Emily Klaczek tossed in 4 in the second period and 9 in the third for a team-high 13 points.

"I thought Angie and Emily gave us a nice spark in the middle quarters," said Fremd coach Dave Yates. "But we can't play two quarters. You've got to play four. That's a lesson we learned and now it's on to the playoffs."

Sophomores Olivia Hill (8 points) and Ruthie Montella (6 points) were also key offensive players for the Vikes.

"We didn't have a good start but I thought we had a nice comeback," Yates added. "In the third quarter, we did nice job. Every time they scored, we answered and then we got a stop. But they settled down and that's a credit to Ryan (Kirkorsky). They started pulling away in the fourth quarter and we didn't have an answer."

Sophomore Susannah Holifield (3 rebounds) and senior Caili Hosler also had basket for Meadows, which converted 5-of-6 free throws in the game's final 2:30.

"In the second and third quarter, Fremd kind of had its way with us on both ends of the court," Kirkorsky said. "They're a really hard team to play. Dave (Yates) obviously runs great stuff and they've got some really skilled kids. I thought they were tougher than us for the middle stretch and we challenged our kids to get tougher.

"With the pace both of our teams play at, there are often runs in the games. I was just really impressed by our kids' ability to show some grit and toughness."

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