Naperville North just misses upset of Montini

When Montini took a 20-point lead on Naperville North, Monday's girls basketball game seemed to be going according to expectations.

The remaining 12-plus minutes were anything but expected.

Naperville North went on a 21-point run to throw a scare into No. 1-ranked Montini before falling 38-34 at Coach Kipp's Hoopfest in Villa Park.

"It felt really great that we can play with the best of the best," Huskies senior center Sadie Jurkovic said. "We can't underestimate ourselves."

Illysse Pitts put the Broncos (22-2), ranked No. 2 in Class 4A, ahead 30-10 with 4:48 to play in the third quarter. Naperville North (7-9) finished the period by scoring the next 10 points, then scored the first 11 points of the fourth.

"It was the chemistry that we have with our second group," Jurkovic said. "They were just defensively shutting everything down. Our shots were starting to fall in the second half."

"If I learned something tonight as a coach maybe I learned that I need to go a little deeper on my bench because we just played free and easy and started making some shots and started believing," added Huskies coach Jason Dycus. "But I told the girls, I think defense is what did it because when we made them play a little faster, they got flustered and we were able to capitalize on that."

Montini committed numerous turnovers during the Huskies run. A 10-foot jumper by freshman Piper Fenner gave the Huskies a 31-30 lead with 4:26 to play.

"When we took that lead we were really excited," Jurkovic said. "We were sitting on the bench saying, Oh my god, what if we win this game? It's kind of surreal. Even if we didn't win, we didn't get blown out. It wasn't a 46-point deficit. It was solid. It was (4) points, so that feels really, really good."

Montini coach Jason Nichols attributed the Broncos' rough second half to last week's injury to junior guard Sam Mitchell, out another week or two. The lack of leadership caused by Mitchell's injury also showed in Saturday's overtime loss to South Bend (Indiana) St. Joseph's, also at this shootout.

"We've had two big leads in two games and in my opinion, things go wrong and we just go right in the hole," Nichols said. "That's been kind of the character of some of the kids that we've had on the team. When things get tough, we don't battle."

Montini responded with another Pitts layup with 2:56 to go to regain the lead for good. Lindsey Jarosinski added a free throw and then a basket off a Frankie Kokkines assist, and Aaliyah Patty added another free throw for a 36-31 Montini lead.

"We were a better team," Nichols said. "It should never get to that level. It should never, ever get to that point."

Lauren Platou cut the margin to 36-34 with a 3-pointer with 32.5 seconds to go, but the Huskies couldn't score again.

Pitts led the Broncos with 13 points, and Patty had 10 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman Greta Kampschroeder led the Huskies with 8 points.

The comeback was a great confidence booster for the Huskies.

"Boosts it completely," Jurkovic said. "We feel really, really good that even though we didn't pull out the win, we stuck with them."