advertisement

Montini sweats out win at Fenwick

Illysse Pitts knows that it's been a strange last week for the Montini girls basketball team.

The Broncos' second-half woes that have plagued them - they lost to South Bend (Ind.) St. Joseph after having a second half lead and slipped past Naperville North after seeing a 20-point third-quarter lead evaporate - continued Thursday night at Fenwick.

Montini led by as much as 18 points in the second half, only to see Fenwick trim the deficit to single digits in the fourth quarter. They hung on for a 51-42 win.

"That's not good enough," Pitts said. "I think we could've played a lot better in the second half."

So what's been up with the Broncos (23-2) as of late?

"I think we just get too caught up with the score," Pitts said. "Like, we're blowing a team out so we need to extend the lead, extend the lead instead of dying down and losing the lead."

Coach Jason Nichols knows Montini hasn't been itself the past week.

"We're kind of lazy right now," Nichols said. "We're not playing as hard as we can. Maybe we're just going through what they call in baseball the 'dog days.' Maybe these are some dog days."

Playing without its starting point guard isn't helping things either.

"Basically, we've been a little out of it without Sam (Mitchell)," junior Frankie Kokkines said.

Early on against Fenwick (12-11) - a team they beat by 20 points in December - Montini looked fairly smooth defensively and offensively, especially Pitts.

Montini closed the first quarter on a 12-2 run to take a 15-6 lead. Pitts' hot hand from beyond the arc helped spark the Broncos' run.

After missing her first two 3-point looks from the right wing, Pitts hit 3 straight from the right wing.

"That's my spot, the right wing and the corners," Pitts said. "Coach gives me the green light to shoot all day. That's what I got to do."

Pitts gave herself an early birthday present with her performance. The senior had a team-high 15 points - all 3-pointers - and 3 assists.

"It's just a good day," Pitts said.

The second half, though, was a little more forgettable. Aaliyah Patty and Lindsey Jarosinski had back-to-back-layups that gave Montini a 31-13 lead with 5 minutes, 53 seconds to play in the third quarter.

After that Fenwick began to chip away at the deficit. Fenwick scored the first 7 points of the fourth quarter and trailed just 37-29 with 6:08 to play.

"I felt like we can trust each and everyone of us," Kokkines said.

Montini needed to, because the Friars would not go away. Montini could not build the lead back up, as Fenwick kept the game within 10 throughout most of the fourth quarter.

"Every time we scored, we let up more points on the defensive side," Pitts said.

Fenwick got it within 7 points with 23 seconds left, but Kokkines hit a pair of free throws to seal the win for Montini.

"This week we've been working a lot on our free throws," Kokkines said. "We played hard the last two minutes as they got back in the game a little bit."

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.