Montini survives upset bid from Glenbard South
Tasked with defending its Class 3A championship, the Montini girls basketball team has had to win in a lot of ways this year.
The top-seeded Broncos got a familiar postseason opponent in coach Julie Fonda and No. 4 Glenbard South, and they were forced to slug it out in a 34-31 win Tuesday at the Orr sectional semifinals in Chicago. It was the second time in three years that the two teams met in sectionals, with the first ending in a 58-29 win for Montini in the 2013 sectional finals.
"Nobody wanted to listen to me when I told them that this game was going to be tight," Montini coach Jason Nichols said. "I knew (Fonda's) team was pretty good and they're deserving of being mentioned with a lot of great teams because that team was an older team and they've been together for awhile."
In the first quarter the two teams immediately went at each other defensively, but they did employ dramatically different styles. The Raiders (24-4) played predominantly man-to-man while Montini (28-5) rolled out its trademark zone and extended its pressure full court off made buckets.
Sydney Bauman scored 4 of her game-high 14 points on the evening in the first quarter as Glenbard South went to the second with a 6-5 lead. There, Rainey Kuykendall helped Montini find somewhat of a rhythm, scoring 6 of her team-high 10 points in the period as Montini led 15-13 at the half.
"That's been our motto all year. We try to grind it out," Kuykendall said. "We weren't making the right reads on offense. We had a lot of turnovers, but we played defense at the end and that's what mattered.
"(Glenbard South's) chemistry is great and it's hard to break that up. We know them and they know us. It kinda helps when you play teams where you know the personnel."
In the second half Montini opened the lead to 4 early. But Glenbard South's Jenna Brambora hit a trio of buckets that helped Glenbard South take a 23-21 lead before going to the fourth quarter tied at 23.
Montini opened the lead again in the fourth quarter, first to 5 points when Kaylee Bambule hit a 3-pointer with four minutes left and then to 7 when a lefty layup by Kelsey Bogdan made it 32-25 with 1:55 remaining. However, Glenbard South had one more push left.
"That senior group has meant a ton to me and it's obviously calculated that I retire with them," Fonda said. "They're an amazing group and even in the last few seconds we still had an opportunity because of their high basketball IQ."
Trailing by 6 coming off a Montini timeout with 43.9 seconds to play, the Raiders forced an inbounds turnover. Then a Bauman 3-pointer cut it to 32-29. Another inbounds turnover and a basket by Ivana Markovic later and that lead was down to 1.
However, Bogdan sank a pair of critical free throws on the next possession for Montini. Trailing by 3 with 5.7 seconds to play, Glenbard South couldn't get a shot off.