Montini likes the look of IHSA's sectional assignments
Montini may have lost three in a row at the Whitney Young tournament, but it still came out of the Thanksgiving holiday looking pretty good.
That's because the Broncos avoided Marshall and Trinity on the Class 3A road to state in the assignments released by the Illinois High School Association last week.
They could still run into Hope in the Nazareth sectional, but avoiding two out of the three top teams that concerned Montini coach Jason Nichols isn't bad.
"We could have easily been in a grouping of Marshall, Trinity, us and Hope -- and it's us and Hope," Nichols said. "I kind of liked (the assignments)."
The bad news for Glenbard South, Wheaton Academy and St. Francis is they're also in the Nazareth sectional with Montini and Hope.
Fenton finds itself in the Chicago-heavy Trinity sectional with the host Blazers and Marshall.
In Class 4A area teams are in either the Lake Park or Neuqua Valley sectionals, which feed into the NIU supersectional.
Fenwick headlines the Lake Park field, which contains Addison Trail, Glenbard East, Glenbard North, Glenbard West, Lake Park, West Chicago, Wheaton North, Willowbrook and York along with Bartlett, Batavia, Conant, Geneva, Hoffman Estates, Morton, Oak Park, Proviso East and Schaumburg.
Bolingbrook tops the Neuqua Valley sectional, which holds Benet, Downers Grove North, Downers Grove South, Hinsdale Central, Hinsdale South, Naperville Central, Naperville North, Neuqua Valley, Waubonsie Valley and Wheaton Warrenville South with East Aurora, Lockport, Lyons Twp., Oswego East, Plainfield Central, Plainfield North, Plainfield South, Romeoville and West Aurora.
In 2A Lisle hosts a sectional. Subsectional A holds Driscoll, Timothy Christian and the host Lions with Aurora Christian, ACT Charter, Douglass, Plano, Providence-St. Mel, St. Edward, Walther Lutheran and Westmont.
Class 1A Immaculate Conception finds itself in subsectional A of a to-be-announced sectional with Chicagoland Jewish, Illinois Lutheran, Luther East, Mooseheart, Morgan Park Academy, North Shore Country Day, Roycemore, St. Gregory and Waldorf.
A fun start:ŒNaperville Central won its first four games on the way to finishing second to highly regarded Trinity in the Tip-Off Tournament.
"This season has just been so much fun so far," Redhawks junior guard Kelley Hendrick said. "Our motto is 'Expect the Unexpected' this year."
Naperville Central has a solid trio to rely on in Hendrick on the outside and seniors Lisa Lawrence and Jessica Carter around the basket.
"I feel like we've got a pretty well-rounded team," Redhawks coach Andy Nussbaum said. "We can put shooters on the floor. We can put big kids on the floor. We can put quick kids on the floor."
Looking to improve:ŒLake Park won four of five games in the Fenton-Elk Grove-Lake Park Thanksgiving Tournament, but Lancers coach Lisa Smith came away with an unsatisfied feeling.
Smith wants to see her team put together a complete game rather than playing well in spurts.
"That I think is the main thing," she said. "We've got to put four quarters together. We'll get there. It sounds stupid to say, but we're still somewhat young. We've just got to keep building the confidence and the intensity of this young team. People think I'm crazy when I say we're young, but I'm starting one senior."
The Lancers suffered a defensive letdown in their 54-50 loss to Hoffman Estates. They don't want that to happen again.
"We've been working hard in practice," Lake Park sweet-shooting junior forward Samantha Arnold said. "We've been working on our defense ever since the Hoffman game and just really trying to pick it up and do what we can to make everything better."
Arnold said her team has to maintain a consistent level of play when it starts subbing.
"I think once we all just kind of get comfortable playing with each other and knowing our capabilities, then we'll be able to play four quarters," she said.
Heating up?: Fenton coach Tim Anderson came out of Thanksgiving tournament action hoping to see his team start shooting better.
"We're not anywhere close to where we'd like to be -- not even close," Anderson said. "We have a good shooting team. We have to shoot better. We're not shooting well. We have to smooth things out a little bit offensively.
"You can't throw pixie dust at it. We have to shoot better."
The Bison took a step in the right direction with a 63-43 Metro Suburban Conference opening victory against Ridgewood on Tuesday in Bensenville. They scored at least 13 points in each quarter.
Junior forward Samantha Rubright continued her hot start with a season-high 23 points.
"Sammie's a good player," Anderson said. "She's a gamer. She likes to compete, and so do the rest of them."