Driscoll 80, Montini 61
Two conference losses wasn't too bad for Driscoll.
Ruining Montini's senior night, Driscoll's 80-61 victory Friday in Lombard earned a split of the Suburban Catholic Conference title.
Driscoll (20-7, 12-2) has shared it twice in a row, this time with Aurora Central Catholic in ACC's first boys title in any sport since joining the conference in 1997.
Early in January, Driscoll lost consecutive SCC games to ACC and Marmion.
"We had to get the attitude in our head that if we want to do any damage in the second half of the season we had to come together," said Driscoll senior Jake Lindfors, whose 22 points and 14 rebounds led all players.
"I just got the attitude that we were not going to lose any more. It wasn't going to happen."
Montini (10-16, 5-9) failed despite 25-of-58 shooting that many times could carry the day. Alex Blashewski led the Broncos with 19 points. Dex Jones had 10 and Anthony Blashewski, Alex's kid brother, scored 9.
Anthony Blashewski and then 6-foot-3 freshman Jack Viane were the 1 in a box-and-1 defense designed to limit the 6-10 Lindfors after he'd scored 42 and 31 points before against Montini.
"Our strategy was to make everyone other than Lindfors beat us," said Montini assistant coach Jon Vosicky, filling in for head coach Tom Sloan, absent to due family health concerns.
Everyone else did. Jones' fast start kept Montini within 15-14, but Driscoll's Justin Hejza drained two 3-pointers to help the Highlanders to a 21-16 lead after a quarter.
Hejza hit 2 straight 3s to push Driscoll's lead to 10 points. Montini's Kevin Pope answered, but Driscoll's David Schwabe sank a 3 then scored inside to make it 36-23 at 4:17 of the second quarter.
"We had to pick our poison," Vosicky said, "and unfortunately those guys shot the lights out."
Schwabe scored 16 points with 6 assists and 5 steals. Matt Kaban added 10 points and Hejza 12, all on 3's.
"Every team keys on Jake," Hejza said, "so if he wants to pass the ball out to us or if he wants to go score, it's really up to him. Today he was passing the ball out to us."
Alex Blashewski cut the deficit to 44-34 at the half, but Driscoll's hot shooting -- 27 of 40 through three quarters -- put the game away entering the fourth, up 68-49.
"When we were 4-2," said Driscoll coach Nick Latorre, "I told the guys, every year we've won the league we were 12-2, so we still have a chance. We ended up doing a good job and playing good basketball."