Montini puts away St. Edward in 2nd half
St. Edward’s girls basketball team may have thrown a scare into Montini early on Tuesday night, but in the end the Broncos showed why they are still the team to beat in the Suburban Christian Conference Blue Division.
The defending Class 3A state champ Broncos fell behind St. Edward 16-7 early, closed the gap to 16-12 after a quarter, took a 23-21 halftime lead and then dominated the second half, winning 61-42 in Elgin.
Junior Nikia Edom hit a 3-pointer to open the third quarter then found sophomore Kateri Stone in the corner for another 3 less than a minute later. Two Tianna Brown free throws less than 30 seconds after that and the Broncos (5-1, 1-0) were on their way to their 19th straight win over St. Edward (5-1, 0-1).
“This is still new to them,” said Montini coach Jason Nichols of his team, which has only two seniors on the roster. “This is a great environment to play in with this crowd. They’ll get better from that. I’d like to think we got a little better tonight.”
St. Edward coach Michelle Dawson knew her team would have to handle Montini’s pressure and shoot well to compete with the taller, more athletic Broncos. The Green Wave handled the basketball just fine, committing only 14 turnovers, but they shot just 17 of 52 from the field (33 percent). Montini, which was an efficient 24 of 51 shooting, also outrebounded St. Edward 40-24.
“They just have so many offensive weapons,” Dawson said. “When you try to bring more help into the post their guards are sitting on the perimeter and unfortunately they got hot right after halftime.”
While it was the 3-pointer that helped open the game up in the second half, it was superior post play that kept St. Edward at bay. Junior Diamond Thompson, who recently committed to Notre Dame, scored all 10 of her points in the second half and senior Tianna Brown had a consistent 8 points and 7 rebounds despite battling foul trouble.
“We talked about it at halftime,” said Thompson. “We wanted to get the ball inside and open up our shooters.”
While Montini’s inside play on the offensive end gave St. Edward fits, the Broncos’ defensive post presence intimidated the Green Wave into a game of outside shooting, which Montini took away from Wave in the second half as well.
St. Edward was hanging tough at 33-29 after a Rena Ranallo runner in the lane with 2:53 left in the third quarter but Thompson scored twice, Edom hit a 3-pointer and freshman Kelsey Bogdan scored on an offensive rebound as Montini went on a 9-0 run to close the third with a 42-29 lead. St. Edward never got closer in the fourth quarter.
“Our post players had 23 (points) and 16 (rebounds). I’ll take that all day long,” Nichols said, referring to Thompson, Brown and 6-4 junior Malayna Johnson. “It’s hard to contend with those three big kids in the middle.”
Sophomore Sara Ross added 10 points and Edom had 8 for the Broncos, who hit 7 of 18 from 3-point range. Ross and Jasmine Lumpkin had 7 rebounds each and the Broncos blocked 8 shots, including 5 by Thompson.
Callie Johnson led St. Edward with 12 points while Rena Ranallo, Maddie Kerr and Katherine Von Ahnen (9 rebounds) had 10 each. They were the only St. Edward players to score in the game.
“Our girls played with so much intensity and heart,” said Dawson, whose team lost by 40 twice to Montini last season. “There was a lot of good in this game that we need to build on. We’ll take this as a learning experience. The loss doesn’t sit well but in the long run this will help us improve.”