Montini misses its chance at Sterling
STERLING — Montini coach Jason Nichols knows there will be growing pains this season with his young team.
This loss still stung.
The sixth-ranked Broncos let a five-point lead slip away in the final minute and change Thursday at the Sterling Shootout, Hononegah’s Krystal James hitting two free throws with 2.6 seconds left to beat Montini 49-48.
Two Jasmine Lumpkin free throws with 1:25 left gave Montini (12-3) a 48-43 lead. But in the final minute, the Broncos missed two front ends of 1-and-1 free throws, and a pair of James jumpers pulled Hononegah (16-0) within a point.
Montini went 8 for 18 at the free-throw line for the game.
“Part of it’s youth,” Nichols said, “but 8 of 18 at the free-throw line ain’t gonna get it done, missing two 1-and-1s late, getting an offensive rebound of one of those and not pulling it out, that ain’t gonna get it done.”
Hononegah got the ball with 20 seconds left after the last miss. Nichols had Montini intentionally give away three fouls to whittle the clock down to six seconds.
After an Indians timeout, James was fouled on a drive. She calmly swished both attempts.
“I was actually looking to pass to a teammate there, but I couldn’t find one because they were guarding me so tight,” said James, who scored 16 points. “That’s a lot of pressure, but I had faith in myself.”
Montini threw the ball away on the ensuing inbounds, leaving Nichols to stew over the foul and the foul call.
“I don’t know if we fouled that girl or not,” Nichols said, “but I think that’s kind of a garbage call with two seconds left. It didn’t look like much to me, but maybe she did (foul) — he saw it.
“We wanted to shorten the game a little bit, not let them have as much time to run a play. I would do that (strategy) again. That’s a dumb foul. She fouled her trying to steal it. Why are you trying to steal it?”
Montini, whose closest margin in a game last year was 7 points, dropped to 0-2 this year in games decided by fewer than 7 points. But until the final minute, it appeared this would be the Broncos’ best win of the year.
Montini rallied from an early 9-2 hole to grab a 26-23 halftime lead.
The Broncos did so despite the fact that Hononegah shot lights-out from 3-point range. The Indians hit seven 3s in the first half and shot 11 of 21 for the game.
Liz Jordan hit seven of those 3s, making up for the ineffectiveness of 6-foot-4 Iowa recruit Nicole Smith, in foul trouble throughout and finishing with 4 points.
“We knew they were going to try to take Nicole out of the game, and they did a great job of that,” said Hononegah coach Randy Weibel, whose team won the Sterling Shootout for the first time in its 13-year history. “But we had some people step up and make shots. We shoot it a lot, but we don’t always make them a lot. We did these last two games.”
A Kateri Stone 3-pointer with 5:59 left in the third quarter gave Montini its biggest lead at 32-26, and it was 38-37 heading into the fourth. The two teams exchanged leads back and forth until Lumpkin’s baseline drive with 3:27 left pushed Montini ahead 44-43.
Tianna Brown had 13 points and 9 rebounds, Stone 12 points and Lumpkin 8 for Montini.
“I thought for the most part we played great,” Nichols said. “They shot the heck out of the ball and we didn’t know who to guard. It is what it is.”
Earlier in the day Montini routed host Sterling 55-23. Stone and Malayna Johnson both scored 10 points to pace the Broncos and Nikia Edom added 8.