Montini proves it can win without Johnson
FREEPORT - Go ahead, underestimate Montini without Michala Johnson.
Saturday's game at Freeport was proof it could be a premature evaluation.
Two days after learning their All-State junior would miss the rest of the season, Class 3A's top-ranked Broncos beat No. 2 Freeport 51-47 in a rematch of last year's state semifinal won by Freeport.
Montini (7-1) rallied from a 9-point third-quarter deficit, scoring the first 12 points of the fourth quarter to stun a packed house of Pretzels fans.
"I think we kind of proved ourselves," said Montini sophomore point guard Whitney Holloway, who had 8 points, 11 assists and 7 steals.
Montini's girls didn't bite easily on the motive of revenge from last year. Beating a quality opponent away from home without their injured star did just fine.
"We're glad that we won, and we want to keep building on this," Montini senior Alison Seberger said. "We've heard a lot, that people are trying to underestimate us. But we're still a great team without Michala."
In a game of runs, Montini saw a 24-18 second quarter lead evaporate by halftime. A 15-0 Freeport spurt capped by a Suporia Dickens drive and score gave the Pretzels (7-1) a 33-24 lead a minute into the third quarter. Montini came back to tie it with 1:55 left in the third on a Seberger 3-pointer and trailed 40-38 heading into the fourth.
Two Courtney Thomas scores, the second on a Holloway dish in transition, gave Montini the lead at 42-40. Whitney Adams scored on an inbounds pass from Thomas, and Seberger and Adams nailed back-to-back 3-pointers to give Montini a 50-40 lead with 2:35 left.
The Broncos nearly coughed it up in the final minutes, a Katie Norman 3-pointer with 29.7 seconds left after a Montini turnover making it 50-47. Holloway missed the front end of a 1-and-1, but Freeport missed a 3-point attempt for the tie in the final seconds and Seberger iced it with a free throw.
"I wish we would have closed the game better," Montini coach Jason Nichols said, "because that may leave a little doubt in us. That can't happen, and it's something we have to work on."
Seberger scored 10 points and had 7 rebounds and Thomas 8 points and 4 steals for Montini. The Broncos bench outscored Freeport's 21-0, led by Adams with 9 points, Sosnovich with 7 and Tianna Brown's 5.
"That's good to see," Nichols said, "and Holloway is kind of the glue to everything."
Dickens scored 20 points and Norman 14, two of four starters back from last year's Freeport state runner-up.
"We've been circling this game on the calendar for a long time," Norman said. "It just didn't go our way tonight. But in the long run, this game doesn't really mean anything. It's just another tough nonconference game."