Kace and Coco Close Out 

Kenwood was up 15 at half when I arrived in the main gymnasium at Lake Zurich. I know that Missouri State commit Tasha Barnes (2023) had hit three 3’s and I was told that Kenwood was owning the glass. 

I was also told by a coach essentially, “Dave Yates is going to get the Vikings right back in this one, just watch and see.”

That’s exactly what happened. 

Kace Urlacher, an IUPUI women’s hoops signee, said that rebounding and mental toughness were keys in the halftime break. 

Maddy Fay (a 2023 NIU recruit) picked up the slack on the boards on her way to 15 rebounds. Ella Todd(2025) and Ellie Thompson (2025) got the Vikings into good sets and made plays with the ball in their hands. 

After Fremd cut its deficit to 4, Ariella Henigan scored a high-level shot off the glass to make it 39-33 going to the fourth. 

Kace Urlacher (2023) helped take charge late in the third and into the fourth and younger sister Coco (2025) helped energize the Vikings with several big plays too. 

“Overall, she’s probably going to be better than me,” Kace said of her. “So I’ve owned up to it, I’m okay with that. I want to push her…(not) tear her down. I feel like mentally she has to get over a hump sometimes and that’s what I try to help her out with.  

Kenwood’s superstar freshman Danielle Brooks — the Class of 2026 guard was scoring a team-high 16.5 points per game while shooting 39% from 3-point land — hit two huge triples for a 47-45 Kenwood lead.

“A great kid that has a great love and affinity forth game,” Kenwood coach Andre Lewis said of Brooks. “She’s not afraid of the moment because of the amount of work she puts into her game.”

Fremd respond with scores on consecutive possessions for the Urlachers (Kace then Coco). Fremd led 51-47 and closed out the comeback, 53-47.

“We’re playing pretty good games, putting up 70-plus points so to have a close game like that, I think that shows how good we’ll be down the stretch,” Kace Urlacher said. 

Kenwood later went on to beat Morgan Park, one of the City of Chicago’s better teams, 77-49.

Lewis was highly complementary of Fremd as a team. 

“We allowed them to dictate tempo in the second half which is something we don’t normally allow,” Lewis said. “It’s one to grow on and something to get better at. Something for me to gripe about the next week.”