Fremont-Mills gets offensive in 88-48 road win
Fremont-Mills’ forward Taylor Reed slices through the Heartland Christian defense in the Knights’ season-opening 59-57 win last week. Reed scored a career-high 33 points and pulled down 18 rebounds in the win.
J.T. Mahaney, Ike Lemonds and Owen Thornton combined for 61 points in Fremont-Mills’ 84-48 win over Essex in Corner Conference boys basketball Friday in Essex.
Mahaney led the way with 24 points and 10 steals. Lemonds added 19 points and Thornton 18. Coming off a 33-point, 18 rebound performance in the opener, senior forward Taylor Reed was bottled up by the Essex defense and held to four points on 1-of-6 shooting.
The Knights led by after the opening frame then used a 23-8 second quarter run to take a commanding 47-24 lead into halftime.
The Knights’ Luke Madison came off the bench to chip in 14 points.
Fremont-Mills 59,
Heartland Christian 57
The Fremont-Mills boys basketball team and first-year head coach Chelsea Zimmerman picked up their first win of the season in a road opener against Heartland Christian last Monday in a 59-57 victory at the Iowa West Field House.
The game had the occasionally sloppy look and feel of a season-opener. The two teams combined for 44 fouls and 52 turnovers.
“It wasn’t a pretty one, but they stuck it out and I told them to celebrate the win,” said Zimmerman. “There were so many shots that I’ve seen them make and they just weren’t falling. I think a little bit of that was nerves and getting into the flow of the game.”
Fremont-Mills’ full court press gave the Eagles trouble early, forcing 10 first quarter turnovers but the Knights found themselves down 14-12 after the opening frame.
The two teams would exchange punches the rest of a rugged first half until the Knights closed the half on a 6-2 run to take a 33-29 lead into intermission.
Fremont-Mills would control much of the second half with their lead swelling to as many as 10 but the Eagles would not go away. Heartland Christian cut the lead 52-49 with a little over three minutes to go and then tied it on a Gavin Anderson three pointer.
Tied at 52-52 with 2:31 to go, the Knights – and forward Taylor Reed – took over from there. Reed scored back-to-back layups and a free throw to push F-M’s lead to 59-55 with :31 to go. Matt Stile’s putback would cut the lead to 59-57 with 15 seconds to go but that’s as close as the Eagles would get.
Defensively, the Knights were their sharpest in the fourth quarter. In the final 2:31, the Eagles had five turnovers and were 1-of-6 from the field.
“We try to hang our hat on that, to be the aggressor on defense. I think we need to clean up some of those fouls, but I think we’ll learn our lesson on that. I was proud of our work ethic tonight.”
Reed was electric for the Knights. The 6-foot-2 senior scored from all over the floor, putting in 18 of his career-high 33 points in the first half. He also pulled down 18 rebounds.
“The entire senior core I’m proud of,” Zimmerman said. “They showed ice in their veins down the line and didn’t get rattled. Especially Taylor Reed. We talked about him staying consistently engaged and keeping his head up and moving on to that next play and I can tell he made a mental effort to do that and I’m super proud of him.
Colton Brennen scored 17 and Stile 13 to lead Heartland Christian.