Fenwick tips Montini

With Montini's eyes on Tricia Liston, Fenwick's other star junior found her opening.

Katlyn Payne's layup as time expired gave Fenwick a 55-53 win over Montini at Monday's 19th Annual McDonald's Shootout at Willowbrook High School.

Montini's Mallory Sosnovich hit a 3-pointer with 42 seconds left to tie it at 53-53. Fenwick (15-4) passed on a timeout, Serafina Nuzzo drove the left baseline and found Payne open underneath the basket. Payne pump-faked and dropped in the game-winner.

"They left Payne to worry about Tricia, and Serafina found Katlyn," said Fenwick coach Dave Power. "She had the presence of mind to gather herself and finish it. Big-time players make big shots. That's what Katlyn did. I could have called a timeout, but I thought Montini would set up something to try to defend that better. We rolled the dice and it worked out."

Montini (18-4), down 5 at the half, roared back to take a 41-34 lead after three quarters. An Alison Seberger 3-pointer tied it at 26-26, and Whitney Holloway floated in a pair of runners to put the Broncos ahead 30-26. A second Seberger 3-pointer with a second left in the quarter pushed the lead to 41-34.

But Fenwick rallied behind Liston. Held to a pair of free throws in the third quarter, the Friars junior scored 15 of her 29 points in the fourth quarter. She also hit all 15 free throw attempts in the game, a pair with 1:47 left giving Fenwick back the lead at 51-50.

"She's a scoring machine," Montini coach Jason Nichols said, "and I guarantee that (Power) told them when they were going on that run that if Liston doesn't touch the ball every time down the court, you're going to be off the court. That's smart. They weren't going to her enough. She could have got a cold - that's what would have helped us against her today."

Holloway had 17 points and 8 assists, her playmaking critical in Montini's big third quarter. She did miss two free throws in the fourth quarter as Fenwick was mounting its rally and missed a contested jumper with Montini holding the ball up one and two minutes left.

"Whitney played great," Nichols said, "she just kind of forced something there and we didn't need it."

Seberger added 12 points and Sosnovich 9, all on 3-pointers, and Chrissy Fletcher scored 7 for Montini, which shot 3 of 9 from the free throw line.

"I've been more discouraged after some of our wins than this loss," Nichols said. "We played pretty good. We just didn't hit free throws and they did."