Fremd the enemy that takes down Bedford North Lawrence at Santa Shootout

BROWNSBURG — With a Fremd like this who need enemies?

Class 4A's fourth-ranked Bedford North Lawrence suffered its first loss of the season as Fremd High School — one of the two Chicago suburb powers invited to Saturday's Sneakers for Santa Shootout at Brownsburg — eked out a 41-40 victory in Game Six of the girls basketball charity event that provides sneakers for needy youth during the holidays.

Fremd had a reserve named Isabelle Zavilla. It might as well have been Cruella Deville because the Vikings turned BNL's offense spotty to make it a somber close to the Thanksgiving season for the Lady Stars.

The Vikings' long-armed defense — they had six players on the roster between 6-0 and 6-2 — stifled the Lady Stars, who shot a mere 36 percent from the field overall and 20 percent (3 for 15) from the 3-point arc while getting to the line just five times. BNL, perhaps feeling the interior presence, also misfired on five point-blank layups.

"I don't think we played well, and we seemed really out of rhythm and frazzled at the offensive end for some reason," said BNL head coach Jeff Allen. "I think their length had a pretty big effect on us at the offensive end. We missed some open threes we normally make, and we had some role players miss some open looks inside they usually make.

"So it just wasn't a good night offensively. I think we guarded pretty well and battled them on the boards well (a 23-23 standoff) given their size. If you had told me before the game we'd hold them to 41 points I'd have told you we'd win because I was sure we'd score over 50, but we had a bad night against a good team, and we still gave ourselves a chance to win."

Nail-biter for 32 minutes

Fremd shot its way to a six-point lead in the first period, and the Lady Stars countered to compile a five-point edge in the second stanza, but those were the largest separations of the contest. BNL's last advantage was 38-37 with 3:31 to play when junior guard Karsyn Norman swiped a pass at midcourt and sailed in with a layup to cap her game-high18-point effort. But BNL went over three minutes without scoring again.

The Vikings answered with a lob for a layup to 6-2 Maddy Fay, who led the Vikings (4-2) with 11 points and seven rebounds. Then, with 1:05 to play, it looked as if Chloe Spreen had come up with a clean strip on 6-2 Kace Urlacher, but she was called for a foul, and Urlacher hit one of two free throws for a 40-38 lead.

Spreen converted a strong drive to knot it with 21 seconds left but Norman fouled Anna Schmitt on the inbound pass and she converted the front end of the bonus to make it 41-40 with :18.9 remaining.

"Karsyn thought we were still in a situation where we wanted to foul, but we weren't, and she felt really bad about it after the game," Allen said. "It was just a mistake during the heat of the game, but we wouldn't have been in it without Karsyn. It's a team game, and we had chances to win after that."

BNL worked it down to Spreen for a clear-out drive, but she encountered a triple team and the ball was batted away. Schmitt was fouled at :02.2, but missed the front end and the Lady Stars got a timeout. Carlee Kern sailed a long pass to Madisyn Bailey and her deep 3-pointer was dead-on , but rattled out at the buzzer as BNL slipped to 6-1.

"We learned a lot about guarding teams with that much size and a coach has to be happy when his team has a really tough offensive night, but loses by one point and has a shot to win it at the end," Allen said. "The girls executed that last play extremely well and the shot looked good, but just didn't go down.

"We never like to lose, but we battled and competed hard, and in the grand scheme of things this one doesn't mean a whole lot except what we can learn to help us get better for the next one."

Fremd fires away at the outset

BNL once again found itself looking up at an opponent and Fremd utilized a strong inside-out game to start as Jill Sheehan and Anna Schmitt rained in treys and Ella Todd knocked in an 18-footer to make it 11-5.

Norman was a whirling dervish to keep the Lady Stars in it, scoring all seven of BNL's points in the first period to keep it close, 11-7.

Pressure defense vexes Vikings

BNL went to a 1-2-2 press late in the first period, and it wreaked havoc with the Vikings. The Lady Stars carried it over into the second stanza and kept forcing turnovers to fuel an 11-0 run as Spreen got untracked seven quick points, capped by a driving three-point play that gave BNL a 16-11 lead.

Fremd wiped it out by going inside for six points, but Norman responded with a high-light reel spinning drive into a reverse layup — degree of difficulty 9.9 — and Spreen capped her eight-point quarter with a free throw to give BNL a 19-17 halftime lead.

Norman added five points in the third period, while Kern canned a trey as the Lady Stars held onto the lead, 30-29, setting up the duel to finish in the fourth quarter.

Norman added three steals, while Spreen had 13 points, six rebounds, three steals and three assists for BNL, whose next one is a huge conference clash.

Key conference duel at Jennings County

BNL has to brush itself off in a hurry because it will step right back into the pressure cooker Tuesday night at Jennings County, which defeated Rushville, 48-25, Saturday to remained undefeated at 7-0.

The Panthers are led by 6-0 sophomore star Juliann Woodard, who averages a double-double, while Lily Ernstes, Kali Thompson, Mackenzie Matern and Charlee Barlow are also key returnees from last year's 16-7 team that fell to BNL, 55-51, in the sectional championship game.

"She (Woodard) is really tough, one of the best players in southern Indiana and I really think we try to limit her as much as we can, and focus on really slowing the other players as much as we can," Allen said. "But they also have to guard us, and I'll put our guard play up against anybody in the state.

"It's a big game, and we need to just get our rhythm back offensively. I have no doubt our girls will respond."

Game time at North Vernon is 6 p.m. for junior varsity action.

In other games Saturday at Brownsburg, the host Bulldogs edged Salem, 56-50, Franklin turned back Reynoldsburg, Ohio, 69-67, Zionsville downed Bolingbrook, Il., 58-55, Westfield downed Centerville, Ohio, 60-51, Mount Notre Dame, Ohio (the No.1-ranked girls team in the country according to ESPNw) took down defending Class 4A state champion Crown Point, 56-41, and Indianapolis North Central upset Class 3A No.1 South Bend Washington, 62-.

Contact Times-Mail Sports Writer Jeff Bartlett at jeffb@tmnews.com, or on Twitter @jeffbtmnews.

FREMD, IL. 41, BEDFORD NL 40

Fremd (41)

Todd 4-6 0-0 9, Fay 5-12 1-2 11, Urlacher 1-2 3-4 5, Schmitt 2-3 1-3 6, Sheehan 2-3 0-0 6, Bodensteiner 0-1 0-0 0, Gonella 1-2 0-0 2, Eshoo 1-5 0-0 2, Davilla 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-34 5-9 41.

Bedford North Lawrence (40)

Kern 2-6 0-0 5, Pride 1-6 0-0 2, Spreen 5-12 3-5 13, Norman 7-13 0-0 18, Bailey 1-4 0-0 2, Turner 0-0 0-0 0, Crane 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 16-44 3-5 40.

Fremd (4-2) 11 | 6 |12 | 12 — 41

Bedford NL (6-1) 7 | 12 | 11 | 10 — 40

3-point goals: Fremd 4-7 (Sheehan 2-3, Todd 1-1, Schmitt 1-2, Gonella 0-1); Bedford NL 3-15 (Spreen 0-4, Norman 2-6, Kern 1-3, Pride 0-1, Bailey 0-1). Rebounds: Fremd 23 (Fay 7); Bedford NL 23 (Spreen 6). Total fouls: Fremd 10, Bedford NL 13.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Mail: Fremd the enemy that takes down Bedford North Lawrence at Santa Shootout