Gonnella handles the pressure, lifts Fremd over Barrington
Nikki Gonnella's first varsity action for Fremd's girls basketball team was last spring's shortened COVID-19 spring season when crowds were limited.
So Friday night at Fremd, the 5-foot-9 junior guard might not have been accustomed to the big turnout on hand for the boys/girls doubleheader action against Barrington.
No worries. Gonnella handled the atmosphere like it was common place, sinking 3 free throws in the final 21 seconds that proved to be the difference in the Vikings' 40-39 Mid-Suburban West opening win between two teams expected to battle for the league title.
"I practice them a lot because I know they mean the most toward the end of games," said Gonnella, who led the defending West champs with 10 points.
Her clutch free throws were exactly what coach Dave Yates expected.
"We put her in to do that and she did her job," Yates said. "We thought she could knock down shots. She hit a big 3-pointer (with 1:41 left in the third quarter to get her team to within 21-20) earlier and hit some big shots in the game when we were struggling to score."
Tight defense and missed shots kept the first-half scoring low.
Barrington junior Sophie Swanson (game-high 19 points) came up with a steal and raced down court for a 3-pointer to make it 11-10 and the Fillies led 13-11 on a 3-pointer by Allison Funk. The visitors added 2 free throws by Laura Mahlum (7 points) to lead 15-11 at the break.
The game was even at 24-24 after three quarters, thanks to a layup by Gonnella with 10 seconds left in the period.
Fremd (6-2, 1-0) made its biggest run of the game when a 6-foot lean-in bank by Maddy Fay (8 points) triggered an 8-0 run, including back-to-back fast-break buckets by Brynn Eshoo (8 points) and capped by a 16-footer by freshman Ella Todd (8 points) that made it 35-30 with 3:27 left.
Fay's nifty 7-foot turnaround left-handed hook shot gave Fremd a 37-31 advantage with 2:08 left. Swanson's' driving layup got Barrington (5-2, 0-1) to within 37-35 with 2:40 left. The next points were 2 free throws by Gonnella with 21 seconds left for a 39-35 lead. Swanson's free throw cut it to 39-36 with 17 seconds before Gonnella hit another one to make it 40-36 with 11 seconds left.
"I always spin the ball twice and dribble twice," Gonnella said. " We practice them a lot. There was a lot of pressure. I was just trying to win the game for my team. Everyone who came off the bench had great energy."
Swanson's 3-pointer with 0.8 seconds made the final margin of 1 point.
"It's awesome to be 1-0 in the conference," Yates said. "It's awesome to beat your rivals and awesome to beat a team that's very highly thought of. So I'm very proud of my kids."
"I never felt like we got into a good rhythm offensively," said Barrington coach Babbi Barreiro. "I didn't think we looked ourselves at all. Part of that was because Fremd played great defense and part that we didn't do the things we needed to do. It's early in the season. We'll be OK. We just didn't play together tonight and Fremd did."
Yates expects IUPUI recruit Brianna Wooldridge (senior) and junior Norah O'Brien (first off the bench last spring) back soon from injuries.
"Without having everybody, I thought we did a nice job hanging around and winning this game," Yates said. "I think we have to talk, too, about our defense. When you see they've been scoring in the high 50s and 60s and drilling some people, I thought we guarded them and we had kids who worked all game long and did a nice job with that."