Fremd beats Barringtont to claim MSL West title
The Fremd girls basketball team sailed out of Barrington Friday night with a 41-37 Mid-Suburban West victory in front of a sizable crowd.
The win clinched a second consecutive division title and gives the Vikings a 24-game conference winning streak.
Fremd improved to 19-6 overall with an 8-0 conference mark. A much improved Fillies squad is now at 17-9 and 6-2.
Senior Emily Klaczek, known to her teammates as 'El Capitan' sank a 3-pointer with 45 seconds left to break a 35-all tie.
"That's what a senior captain does," said Fremd coach Dave Yates of Klaczek, who scored 16 points and grabbed 5 rebounds.
"In the timeout we drew up a play for her and she came out and hit it. It was a huge shot. At the end of a game you have to run your plays well."
"My team did everything to set up the play," said Klaczek, a University of Alabama-Birmingham recruit. "My teammates gave me a good screen and when I got the ball I was feeling it. So, I said, 'I'm going to shoot it and if I don't make it, it's not going to be good.' But, I felt it."
Klaczek would hit the second of 2 free throws with 23 seconds left for a 39-35 lead.
Barrington freshman Sophia Swanson (9 points) scored on a layup with 16 seconds left to make the score 39-37.
Klaczek then hit two more free throws with 14 seconds to go to seal the win.
"Credit Barrington," said Klaczek. "They came out and wanted a piece of us. It was close all the way but we battled at the end and rallied to get the job finished. I couldn't be prouder than to play with this group of girls. We play well together and we enjoy it."
Barrington was hurt down the stretch when Taylor Thompson, who finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds, fouled out with 2:08 left in the game.
"It hurt us for sure but we were still in a position to win the game," said Barrington coach Babbi Barreiro. "Taylor spent time on the bench with foul trouble and our players battled. You want to be in a position at the end of the game to win and we were. It just didn't fall our way tonight. I think some of our young kids grew up tonight and that was evident."
A tough defensive battle saw Fremd with 15 turnovers and connecting on only 13 of 42 shots. Barrington fared a little better from the field, shooting 13 of 38 but had 22 turnovers.
Barrington opened its biggest lead at 28-22 with 4:42 left in the third quarter on a 3-point play by Thompson.
That seemed to wake up the Vikings, who put together a 9-0 run to finish the quarter ahead 31-28.
Klaczek started the run with a basket. Ruthie Montella hit 2 free throws. Olivia Hill, who scored 10 points, connected on a 3-pointer and then had a putback to end the run.
"When we were down 28-22 we just got more aggressive," said Yates. "We started pushing the ball and finishing better. We played real well in the last couple of minutes of the game. We executed well."
Grace LaBarge came off the bench to add 8 points and 4 rebounds for the Vikings.