St. Viator bounces back with rout of Fremd
St. Viator's boys basketball team was feeling the frustration of a stinging Wildcat Hardwood Classic quarterfinal loss Thursday night to Glenbrook South, so on Friday night, the Lions let a pretty good Fremd team know about it.
The Lions (10-4) jumped all over the Vikings from the get-go, racing out to a 16-2 first-quarter bulge that never got closer than 12 again en route to a 63-34 win and a spot in the tournament's fifth-place game Saturday at 3:45 p.m. versus Prospect.
"We were pretty disappointed after the other night," said Viator head coach Quin Hayes. "We said, 'Let's see how we respond tonight.' " As it turned out, his players "were pretty hungry to get a win," as he noted.
The Lions scored the game's first 9 points, fueled initially by high-scorer Connor Kochera's bucket inside and Mike Campagna's 3-pointer. By the time Kayman Hopkins got Fremd on the board, it was 12-2 and Viator was playing with the fluidity of a well-oiled machine. Kochera's drive to make it 14-2 came right through the heart of the defense and was the telltale sign that it was Viator's night.
It was 30-12 at halftime as Patrick Schumacher hit a buzzer-beating 3 to end the second quarter. No combination of Fremd quintets nor any number of timeouts could break Viator's momentum nor spark any for Fremd (8-5), which meets Libertyville for seventh place Friday at 12:15 p.m.
The second half was a blueprint of the first, as both teams emptied their benches, Viator getting some spirited play from reserves Joshua Arongundade and Jake Pasko. Point guard Jake Schoffstall finally found the range for Fremd, finishing with 11 points, mostly on perimeter shooting, which was all Viator allowed, and even those were severely challenged. And Hayes is hoping this carries over not only into the game against Prospect but into the second half of the season next month.
He was very pleased with Kochera's play, calling him "a heck of a basketball player. He's a smart player. He's a very confident player. He puts in the work."
Kochera's 22-point performance on 8-of-15 shooting from the floor spoke for itself. Campagna had 8 points and Owen Hickey had 7 as Viator dominated the backboards too, 25-15, while forcing 19 turnovers out of the Vikings, who never played at the same confidence level and can hardly remember getting beat by so wide a margin after shooting 13 of 37 from the floor, 3 of 17 on 3-pointers.