Girls Basketball: Meredith Boardman leads Fenwick by Fremd in OT

Updated: December 30, 2011 12:10AM

Meredith Boardman is probably the last person Fenwick would want to take a clutch three-pointer.

But the 6-1 senior center came through when it counted Thursday, draining a high-arcing trey from just to the left of the top of the key with 10 seconds left in regulation against Fremd.

That forced overtime, during which Boardman scored six more points to lead the Friars to an 84-77 victory and third place at the Dundee-Crown Charger Classic.

“Coach (Dave) Power likes me to practice those shots, but that one was kind of a surprise,” said Boardman, who finished with 24 points, eight rebounds and six steals. “I had to do it for my team.”

Boardman’s tying three capped Fenwick’s rally from a 16-point deficit. Fremd (12-3) used a 20-4 run in the second quarter to go up 40-24 before a three-pointer from Maggie Reilly gave the Friars a bit of momentum heading into intermission.

The Friars (12-4) quickly made up ground, sinking shots they missed in the first half and using their trapping defense to pressure the Vikings.

“Part of their style is they wear you down,” Fremd coach Dave Yates said. “It forces you make tough decisions. Then they weren’t hitting shots in the first half and they did in the second half, to their credit.”

A three-pointer from Reilly gave Fenwick a 55-52 lead early in the fourth quarter, but Fremd surged back in front thanks to Ashley McConnell, who scored 10 points down the stretch, mostly at the free-throw line, and gave the Vikings a 68-65 lead with two free throws with 30 seconds left.

McConnell, who tallied a career-high 32 points, had a chance to win it but her off-balance three-point try under pressure missed at the buzzer.

“She had one of the best tournaments in my time at Fremd that I’ve seen a kid have here and she did it against great competition,” Yates said of McConnell. “I think she’s one of the best point guards in the state of Illinois. I’ve heard other people say it and she gets it done against really good teams.”

In the end, though, Boardman willed her team to victory, scoring six straight points for Fenwick in the overtime, including a 4-for-4 performance at the line. The Friars were 12 of 14 from the line in the extra period.

“I think overall we just played better as a whole and as a unit,” Boardman said. “We had more spring on defense and kind of rotated better on offense.”

Jade Owens added 18 points and seven assists for Fenwick, while Paige Corvino scored 16 points, including five three-pointers, and Reilly tallied nine points, all on treys.

Bernie Williams, Haley Gorecki and Jessi Wiedemann all scored 13 points for Fremd. Williams also had five steals and Wiedemann six rebounds.

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