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LOMBARD – Fremd’s girls basketball team is back at the Montini Christmas tourney for the first time since 2019.
And the Vikings aren’t being quiet about it.
They exploded with a 24-5 run starting midway through the first quarter and never looked back with a 71-33 triumph over York that puts the Vikings (13-2) into Friday’s semifinal against Marist (13-2) at 7:30 p.m.
“Obviously, we had eight turnovers in the first quarter,” said Fremd coach James Han, whose team won its opening game 77-30 over Burlington Central. “Once we kind of settled in and stopped throwing very, very uncharacteristic passes, we kind of found openings in the zone. We got turnovers off our press which we could finally set since we actually scored and didn’t turn it over. That helped kind of getting us into rhythm offensively.”
The Dukes went ahead 6-3 on a 10-footer by Ellie Kehoe. But 5 straight points by Coco Urlacher on a layup on an assist from a nice entry pass Greta Thompson and a 3-point play off her own steal and layup got the Vikings rolling with an 8-5 lead.
“I feel like this season we are having a little bit of a tough time starting games strong but once we get going, we keep going,” said Urlacher, who was named Fremd’s Player of the Game. “Personally, I feel I could have gotten off to a better start but I kind of had to just get back in my groove a little and get into the game.”
Two free throws and a 3-point play by Ella Todd (game-high 17 points) followed by Sophia McMillan’s fastbreak layup completed an 11-5 run by Fremd to close out the opening quarter with a 17-8 cushion.
The Mid-Suburban West leaders retained the momentum into second period with a 13-0 run at the outset, getting 6 points from Urlacher, a corner 3-pointer by McMillan, a steal and layup by Gracie Todd and an 11-foot pull-up jumper by Todd after she grabbed a long rebound and went coast to coast.
York scored its first basket of the quarter when junior Olivia Silkaitis hit a 3-pointer from the baseline to make it 30-11 with 2:53 left to half.
Urlacher’s beautiful drive and left-handed 6-footer in the lane put Fremd in front 34-14 at intermission.
“Coco did a good job,” Han said. “I thought Sophia McMillan came off the bench and gave us a lot of energy. She turned them over a couple of times and that led to some easy buckets. A lot of kids who came off the bench did a good job. Natalie Klink (4 points) came in and did a great job. We had a lot of kids step up.”
Fremd kept the pressure on in the third quarter, allowing just 6 points to draw away to a 58-22 lead heading into the final quarter.
Starters Ellie Thompson added 7 points for Fremd while her sister Greta had 5 and Bella Del Mar 4. Also scoring off the bench were Gracie Todd (4), Elena Nehf (4) and Nicole Wulfram (one 3-pointer).
Silkaitis (10 points) was York’s Player of the Game.
“She has had a great tournament so far,” said York coach Brandon Collings. “And she’s had a great season.“
Kayla Callahan added six points (two 3-pointers) for the Dukes (6-6) while Anna Filosa had five points.
“Fremd has a lot of weapons,” Collings said. “All five of their girls can handle the ball which makes it tough against our pressure but I thought we did a great job pressuring them. We got some steals but just did not convert on some of them.”