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Montini clobbers Mother McAuley

Montini coach Jason Nichols approaches every game as an opportunity to get better. That explains why he used timeouts even while his team was building leads of 16-3 and 24-5 Thursday against visiting Mother McAuley.

"Every game is an opportunity to get better," said Montini's 6-foot-5 center Lindsey Jarosinski, a Wake Forest recruit who had 18 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocked shots while leading the Broncos to a 59-30 victory in the Girls Catholic Athletic Conference.

"A lot of (what is discussed during timeouts) is our effort," she added. "Just knowing where people are. We focused on No. 14 (McAuley's Tara O'Malley). We lost her a couple of times. We focus on specific players we go over the day before or during our pregame walk-through. Then knowing plays and working hard."

McAuley also burned a couple of timeouts as Montini (14-1, 2-0) wasted little time putting distance between itself and the visitors Tuesday.

After an O'Malley 3-pointer gave the Mighty Macs a 3-2 lead 1:15 into the game, the Broncos reeled off the next 24 points. The hosts led 34-7 at halftime and 43-12 on two Jarosinski free throws with 1:23 remaining in the third quarter.

"We didn't really bind to what we were supposed to do," said O'Malley, a 5-6 guard. "That obviously hurt us during our game. Their length, their speed, their quickness, their intensity, it's hard to get by. You have to be laser-focused the entire game. We weren't."

Neither were the Broncos, Nichols said.

"We're doing some things that we've been emphasizing in practice, and we're still doing them wrong, so that's what I want to emphasize during timeouts," he said. "That's why I coach the whole game, for later in the year. We're 14-1 but we're not playing like a 14-1 team. I'm OK saying that.

"I'm not worried about going into our Christmas tournament next week and winning the thing," Nichols added. "I want to get better. The last two state champions, Geneva and Benet the year before, did not win this tournament but won the state title. I want to be them. I want to get better. That's what we're trying to do … get better."

Junior Sam Mitchell, Illyse Pitts and Aaliyah Patty each had 8 points for Montini. Sophomore Sydney Prochaska added 7 points and freshman Taris Thornton had 6.

O'Malley led McAuley (10-3, 0-2), which was playing without 5-10 forward Vanessa Gavin (back spasms), with 14 points, including four 3-pointers. Grace Hynes and Jenna Badali each had 6 points.

"With Gavin out, who's another perimeter scorer, that made it a little bit easier, let's be honest," Nichols said.

"I thought we did a good job of how we communicated as coaches, but I don't know if they (the players) communicated as well out there. That's another weakness. We don't communicate."

Communication is certainly something that will be communicated during Nichols' next timeout.

Images: Montini Catholic vs. Mother McAuley, girls basketball

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