St. Joseph 67, Montini 50

Driscoll. Aurora Central. North Lawndale. St. Francis.

Montini had these quality programs on its schedule.

No disrespect, but none of them owns the pedigree of the Broncos' foe in Tuesday's Class 3A St. Francis regional semifinal in Wheaton, where class expansion sent state power St. Joseph to the Spyglass Athletic Center.

The Chargers' Hall of Fame coach, Gene Pingatore, who with 816 wins should pass Dick Van Scyoc's 826 next season for the IHSA career record, has won two state titles and produced more than 50 Division I players in 39 years.

On Tuesday he won his first Class 3A game. No. 2 seed St. Joseph beat No. 15 Montini 67-50.

"Montini, they're going to come out and play hard, and they did. They did a lot of good things and they have good players," Pingatore said.

"To try to convince your kids that they're going to do that, that's the trick. And they never gave up, we never put them away."

Montini forward Dex Jones, headed to Wisconsin on a football scholarship, knows something of the culture in which St. Joseph exists.

"When you play a team that has a bunch of D-I athletes, they really exploit your weaknesses, and that's what a good team does," Jones said. "You have to have perfect execution to beat a team that produces D-I athletes like that."

Montini (11-18) shot a decent 20 of 43 and forced St. Joseph into 18 turnovers -- pesky Anthony Blashewski had 4 steals to go with his 9 points. Jones scored 8 points.

But St. Joseph (21-6) ruled the boards. Eighteen of the Chargers' 30 rebounds came on the offensive glass, one less than Montini's total.

"It's fair to say they may have had 36 (second-chance) points," said acting Montini coach John Vosicky. "They may have been able to put all those back, and that was the difference in the game."

Forward David Dixon had 7 of his 10 boards on the offensive end. He matched teammate and Division I recruit Diamond Taylor with a game-high 22 points.

Montini's Alex Blashewski, who had a team-high 13 points, got his team off to a solid start. The Broncos were within 18-12 after a quarter and 31-19 at the half.

True separation came when St. Joseph forced 6 turnovers in the last four minutes of the third quarter.

The Chargers' 16-4 run built a 52-30 lead entering the fourth quarter. It withstood Montini's late surge, led by Anthony Blashewski and Kevin Pope, that cut it to 63-50 with 1:14 left.

"It was our first game in the playoffs, so we had first-game jitters," Taylor said. "You just have to get the jitters out."