Montini 57, Glenbard South 41
Glenbard South was determined to not let Montini standout center Michala Johnson dominate like she did when the teams met earlier this season. In that game Johnson scored 32 points to lead the Broncos to a rout.
With the stakes much higher Tuesday night -- the Class 3A Nazareth girls basketball sectional semifinal -- the Raiders slowed Johnson by double-teaming her, but they couldn't stop the rest of the Broncos.
Behind the play of guards Cootie Leeberg, Alison Seberger and Whitney Holloway, the Broncos advanced to the sectional championship with a 57-41 victory over Glenbard South in La Grange Park.
No. 2 seed Montini (25-5) will play top-seed Hope at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
"They are a great team," said Glenbard South coach Julie Fonda, whose team lost to the Broncos 80-44 on Nov. 16.
"It is hard to stop them all for 32 minutes. I am proud of the way our girls handled them. They beat us by (36) and to come back and do something like this is a testament to my kids. The fact that they have heart and they worked their butts off."
Montini coach Jason Nichols felt his team didn't play with much energy. The coaching staff told the players that they were not going to beat the Raiders as handily as last time. Leeberg took that message to heart, especially as the Glenbard South defense was smothering Johnson in the paint.
The senior poured in a game-high 15 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Five of those points came in the decisive fourth quarter as the Broncos pulled ahead.
"We knew that we had to step it up and to be able to play Hope on Thursday, it was now or never," Leeberg said. "Someone had to step up, and being a senior, I knew it was my job."
"You've got to have seniors step up when things are not going well," Nichols said. "(Leeberg) did a pretty good job."
Seberger sank three 3-pointers in the game and Holloway tallied 5 points during crunch time in the fourth quarter. Johnson did manage to score 10 points and made her presence known on defense with 5 blocked shots.
"If I wasn't getting the ball inside on offense, all I could do was play good defense," Johnson said.
"To hold (Johnson) to 10 points is pretty stellar," Fonda said. "They spread it around and did a nice job of finding the open player. If we were going to lose, someone else was going to have to step up and beat us. That was what happened."
Give the Raiders (21-9) credit for fighting back. They trailed by 12 points in the second quarter and came back to tie it in the third.
Center Maja Despot and guards Nikki Simpson and Danielle Pipal were the catalysts. Despot powered in all 7 of her points in the third quarter while Simpson tallied 6 of her 10 points. Pipal scored a team-high 12 points.
Glenbard South trailed 37-35 heading into the final eight minutes, but the Broncos put the game away by outscoring the Raiders 20-6.