Zacker, Montini blast past Lincoln-Way East
Montini senior Zoe MacKay Zacker considered her team's second quarter Tuesday and saw growth.
"The team that we have now is athletic and they can get after people if they want to," MacKay Zacker said. "Our freshmen have all the potential in the world, and they're starting to show it now. And they started clicking with the team. And we knew it was going to take time, but every day it's getting a little step closer and a little step closer, and I think if we keep doing that, this is going to be a really good season."
It was a really good result for the Broncos, who beat a strong Lincoln-Way East girls basketball team 62-44 in a nonconference game in Lombard.
Not bad for a team that played four freshmen, started two of them and is still getting used to being without senior guard Sam Mitchell. Mitchell, a UAB recruit, is out for the season with a knee injury.
The Griffins (4-3) tied the game at 10 late in the first quarter, but the Broncos (5-1) blew the game open from there. They hit three 3-pointers to finish the quarter, then continued their run through the second. Over the course of about 10 minutes, Montini outscored Lincoln-Way East 30-6 to take a 40-16 halftime lead.
The Broncos made 10 of 20 3-point attempts in the first half, 12 of 32 for the game.
"They can really shoot the basketball," Lincoln-Way East coach Jim Nair said, "but they were getting wide-open looks because they move the ball so well and they're very disciplined. We would rotate over and help on the first pass, but then they were so disciplined to make the extra pass and it definitely hurt us in that second quarter."
MacKay Zacker made her first five 3-point shots to finish with a team-best 15 points. After missing most of the last three seasons with three severe knee injuries, she is getting comfortable again on the court. MacKay Zacker has made 13 3-pointers and scored 51 points in the Broncos' last three games.
"The last three games she's been awesome," Nichols said.
MacKay Zacker passed the credit like her teammates passed the basketball.
"I think it's from my teammates setting me up in the right place and the right time," MacKay Zacker said. "And Coach (Jason Nichols) tells us every day that there's a shot and then there's a better shot, and they gave up their good shot for a better shot and I want to do the same for them. (Freshman Sophie Sullivan) had some 3s, (freshman Angie Giordano) had some 3s, everybody was hitting. It's nice to have a team that has multiple strengths."
Sullivan finished with 11 points, hitting three 3-pointers. Sophomore Taris Thornton came off the bench to score 8 points with 5 rebounds. Freshman Tatiana Thomas grabbed 9 rebounds, 8 of them on the offensive boards.
The Griffins outscored Montini in the second half.
"A tale of two halves," Nichols said. "I thought after the first three minutes of the first quarter we were pretty good. We had good ball movement. We had great pace. We were defending pretty good.
"And then we came out in the second half like we were comfortable. We talked about, we were up 24, to get it up to 30 and bury them so that we could get some other kids some playing time. And we came out relaxed and just absolutely struggled and showed who we are. And it has nothing to do with youth because there's older kids who aren't playing well right now either."
Senior Katchie Savic led the Griffins with 18 points, and Reilly Sheehan added 10.
"We feel we can play with anybody, but we lost to the better team today," Nair said.