Presenting the 2021 Daily Herald Northwest Suburbs All-Area Girls Basketball Team

The marquee girls basketball matchup to end the season sees Class 4A No. 1 and Mid-Suburban East champion Hersey (15-0, 10-0) and 4A No. 3 and Mid-Suburban West co-champ Fremd (10-2, 9-1) squaring off in Arlington Heights Saturday at 2 p.m. for the overall MSL title.

Barrington downed Fremd in a girls basketball game Tuesday night.

Several girls basketball players have had the hot hand for their teams over the last few weeks, including a dual threat at Saint Viator.

With a large senior exodus from a year ago, the Fremd girls basketball team was bound to encounter highs and lows this season. But the Vikings, with a much smaller senior contingent than last year, are doing just fine sporting a 7-0 mark through midweek.

Fremd defeated Barrington in a girls basketball game Friday night.

These are the nights Bob Frisk lived for. Mid-Suburban League basketball. And Friday night’s version couldn’t be any better, right?

Last year’s Hersey girls basketball team reached a Class 4A sectional, continuing a decade-long run of excellence for the program — seven regional titles and a fourth-place state finish in 2010 —under 400-plus-win coach Mary Fendley. And with a roster that looks a lot like the one last year, Fendley and Co. had high hopes of a long postseason run in 2021 — that is until the pandemic kind of changed things.

Rebounding is not one of the most glamorous aspects of basketball. But when done correctly, it certainly makes a difference. Just ask Palatine girls basketball coach Mark Johnson.

Scouting girls basketball for the 2021 season in the Northwest suburbs