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St. Francis survives against Montini

Friday's game could end up helping both Montini and St. Francis.

Getting Montini in position to win or tie, with 22.8 seconds to play freshman Raymond Dennis earned the Broncos possession on a held ball, trailing St. Francis by 2.

Montini ran the clock, attacked, and had three chances at a tying basket. None dropped and St. Francis won the Chicago Catholic League North Division game, 61-59 in Wheaton.

“That's one of the things that we've progressively been getting to, being able to compete and have a chance to win at the end,” said Montini coach Daryl Thomas.

“We did tonight, we just didn't capitalize on it. We've got to just kind of put that behind us, keep working and get better a little bit better every day,” he said.

St. Francis (7-12, 1-6) cleaned up the turnovers that allowed Montini (6-14, 1-6) to rally from a 20-9 first-quarter deficit. Spartans coach Erin Dwyer noted the Spartans' 11 second-quarter turnovers led to 14 Montini points, thus a slim 32-30 halftime lead for the home team.

“It's just like anything you see at any level, is just don't beat yourself,” Dwyer said.

“We talked in the locker room immediately, 4 turnovers in the second half,” said Spartans senior Gabe Johnson, who scored a game-high 29 points, nailing four 3-pointers.

“The first quarter we had no turnovers, the second quarter we had 11,” Johnson said. “You could tell, we were up around 10 points and they came right back and they were down 2, and it was because of our turnovers leading to points. So in the second half I thought we did a really good job of taking care of the ball and letting our defense create offense.”

Montini's Jayston Williams scored 17 of his team-high 23 points in the middle quarters to lead the Broncos back, and Jack Westerkamp swished four 3s, including one from the right wing to bring Montini within 58-57 with 2:09 to play.

St. Francis' Nick Cooney scored inside and the Spartans got the ball right back when Shane Walker absorbed a charge.

St. Francis spread the floor and Johnson made a free throw with 42 seconds to play. Montini's Kevin Brachmann made it 61-59 on a second-chance basket. Thomas called time to set up the press leading to the final sequence.

“We were in position to win,” Westerkamp said. “We had a shot at the end, and that's all you can ask for. That's just how it goes, that's basketball. We'll be right back at it tomorrow.”

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