Montini cools off Purdom, Knights
Matt Purdom is to Immaculate Conception boys basketball what ice cream is to an ice cream sandwich.
Combining the 6-foot-5 center's two fouls in the first four minutes with host Montini's newfound spark, the writing on this Suburban Catholic Conference contest may have been on the wall.
It wasn't all that cut and dried as IC cut a 17-point deficit to 4, but Montini maintained the pace Saturday to win 63-55 in Lombard.
"Having Matt off the floor takes us out of everything that we do offensively and defensively," said Immaculate Conception coach Darren Howard.
"It's unfortunate that happens to one-dimensional teams, but we are what Matt is."
Montini (3-6, 1-3) showed it's not just Alex Blashewski and younger brother Anthony Blashewski, though Alex led all scorers with 20 and Anthony had 9 points, 10 rebounds and 3 steals.
Broncos coach Tom Sloan started Jordan Werner, Jason Viane and Kevin Pope and brought Zach Brash, Dan Grace and Mike Grant off the bench, with the intended result.
"I felt like we had a lot better energy for the course of the entire game," said Sloan, who got 9 points from Viane, 11 from Pope.
IC's only lead was 4-2 on a Purdom basket from an assist by Anthony Taylor, who led the Knights with 19 points to Purdom's 18.
With successive 3-pointers by Viane and Pope, and Brash drawing Purdom's second foul at 4:02 of the first quarter, Montini started solidly.
A 3 by Alex Blashewski, the sixth Bronco to score, gave Montini a 17-9 lead at the end of the quarter.
"We came out a little flat the last couple of games, so those guys, I guess, brought a spark," Blashewski said.
Taylor had a 7-point second quarter, but the Brothers Blashewski combined for 13. IC (4-4, 2-2) made 7 second-quarter turnovers as Montini led 36-22 at halftime.
IC sliced it to 43-32 after three quarters, then Purdom and Alex Jacobo hit the lane in the fourth to cut the deficit to 53-44 with 3:37 to play.
Taylor's consecutive 3-pointers had IC within 55-50 with 2:28 left. Sloan called time, then Alex Blashewski hit a jump shot in the paint.
Chris Mulligan's 2 free throws kept the pressure on Montini, but while IC missed its last 4 field-goal tries Blashewski made 5 of 6 free throws in the last 51 seconds.
"We had opportunities at the end to make it close and even tie it up and take the lead," Purdom said, "but we just weren't running our stuff well and it didn't happen the way we wanted it to."