Montini finishes with a victory
NORMAL — This trip to Redbird Arena might not have yielded the result Montini wanted and has come to expect, but the Broncos did keep one streak alive.
Appearing in its seventh state final tournament in the last eight years, Montini won its Saturday game for the seventh time.
The Broncos used a sparkling third quarter to eventually cruise to a 63-40 win over Chicago Bogan on Saturday in the third-place game of the Class 3A girls basketball finals at Illinois State's Redbird Arena.
“It's real easy to pack it in,” said Montini coach Jason Nichols, whose defending champs fell to Morton in Friday's semifinals. “But a lot of people didn't think we'd get back here, so to finish third is pretty good. It says a lot for the girls.”
Only two of this season's Broncos are seniors, and each played a role in Saturday's win, as did two sharp-shooting sophomores.
Senior Kelsey Bogdan, who started all eight games the Broncos played at state in her four years, scored only 3 points.
But she had 4 rebounds and 2 assists as Nichols substituted freely and early to keep his players fresh, then later with a big lead.
“This game definitely meant a lot to me,” said Bogdan, who will play at Harvard next year. “It meant a lot to finish my career with a win. Everybody really wanted to win today. I feel like I've played here forever. It's going to be weird not playing for Montini anymore.”
Bogdan's classmate, Rainey Kuykendall, also a four-year varsity player, scored 7 points and had 10 rebounds, including 5 on the offensive end.
“It was hard (to play for third place),” Kuykendall said. “That's the second time for me and Kelsey and it does hurt waking up knowing you're not playing for the state championship. We came out still feeling it from (Friday).”
Bogdan and Kuykendall played on four Montini teams that went 131-15, including 31-6 this season, and won two state championships while finishing third twice.
“They had a heck of a career,” Nichols said of Bogdan and Kuykendall. “State champs twice and third twice. That's not bad.”
It was the hot hand of sophomore Kaylee Bambule that gave the Broncos the run they needed to blow out Bogan (22-11) Saturday.
A tight first half ended with sophomore Nikki Oppenheimer burying a 3-pointer with three seconds on the clock to give Montini a 26-24 lead.
The Broncos then came out on fire in the third quarter. Bambule made three of her five 3-pointers to lead a 25-5 run that put the game out of reach going to the fourth.
Bambule scored 17 points to lead Montini and Oppenheimer had 11.
The Broncos made 11 of 30 from 3-point range, falling one 3-pointer shy of tying a Class 3A tournament record they set against Hillcrest in the 2010 championship game.
Overall, the Broncos were 23 of 50. Ten of the 13 Montini players who saw the floor scored.
“The first half I was really pouty,” said Bambule, who was 5 of 10 from 3-point land. “My coaches and my teammates told me I had to pick it up. I didn't think about it, I just started playing.”
Nichols knew his team could be sluggish early on so he substituted five in, five out on four occasions in the first quarter, “just to get their legs fresh again,” he said.
That, and what he told the team was a “disappointing effort” in the first half led to the third-quarter energy.
“The first half there was a little of the effect from (Friday) left over,” said Nichols, now 358-54 in his 12 years at Montini. “I told them I was a little disappointed with the effort in the first half. “Our scoring was fine, but we weren't getting it out to our 3-point shooters. I just told them, 'You decide what you want to be and how you want to finish this. Do you want to be a third-place team or do you want to be a fourth-place team?'”
His team answered the challenge.
Kuykendall scored a little more than a minute into the third quarter and Bambule hit a 3 before Bogan senior Brittany Byrd made a 3 to make it 31-27.
Bambule's next 3 came with 5:31 left in the quarter and started the Broncos on a 20-2 run that ended with an Illyse Pitts' basket and a 51-29 Montini lead with 33 seconds left in the period.
“I thought we had great effort in the third quarter,” Nichols said. “We played great defense and that allowed us to extend and get some different looks. They came out and responded.”
Nichols made it clear the expectation is to return to Redbird and not for third place.
“We have a lot of talent back,” he said. “But we talked about how we have to get better. We have to get better as coaches and we have to get better as a team.”