Busy Montini to play 10 games in 13 days during Christmas break
It's safe to say Montini has its Christmas vacation plans booked solid.
Starting Friday, the No. 1 Broncos will play 10 games in 13 days. Five will come at the round-robin Sterling Shootout, Dec. 18-22. After a three-day layoff, the Broncos will play five more at the first Montini Christmas Tournament, Dec. 26-30.
"If you love the game it doesn't matter how many games you play," said Montini coach Jason Nichols. "It will help with conditioning. And the kids will have to fight through different types of adversity."
Adversity is an experience Montini (7-0) is unfamiliar with at this point. The Broncos last trailed in a game 5-4 to Marist - in the first quarter of the first game. Montini's average margin of victory is a tick over 33 points per game. Senior Michala Johnson has shown no lingering effects from knee surgery, averaging 17.5 points and 10 rebounds in just 15 minutes per contest while shooting 71 percent from the floor.
It gets tougher this week.
Montini will face defending Class 3A state champion Peoria Richwoods the final night of the Sterling Shootout. Prior to that the Broncos get defending 3A runner-up Freeport as well as Moline, ranked No. 3 in Class 4A.
At its tournament Montini could face Bogan, Marian Catholic, and T.F. North - all among the top 25 teams in the Chicago area. That's not including Marshall, which knocked Montini out of the 3A playoffs last spring.
"We'll definitely be tested over the next two weeks," Nichols said, "which is good. We need to be in those situations where we don't feel comfortable. Then we'll re-evaluate and get ready for the rest of the season."
Here are some of the other top holiday tournaments that get started this week involving area teams:
Dundee-Crown Charger Classic: Naperville Central has never reached the semifinals at Dundee-Crown without a player named Candace Parker.
Could that change this year?
The No. 4 Redhawks (11-0), off to their best start since Parker's junior season, are bracketed as the third seed behind Fenwick and New Trier. Dundee-Crown does not officially seed teams. Naperville Central opens with Regina on Dec. 26.
"I'm not sure we won't get challenged in our first game," said Redhawks coach Andy Nussbaum, noting that Regina has won its last two games after a slow start. "We'll try to do at this tournament what we do every year, is just take it one game at a time."
Fenwick (11-0), led by high-scoring Duke recruit Tricia Liston, seeks its sixth straight tournament title. Naperville Central was the last team other than the Friars to win the event, beating New Trier in Parker's senior year.
The Regina game will be the Redhawks' first after a 16-day layoff.
"That will be interesting," Nussbaum said, "but hopefully it will be good for us, getting the break."
Bill Neibch Falcon Holiday Classic: No. 5 Hinsdale Central (6-2) is the top seed once again at Wheaton North.
Winning a fourth straight tournament title will be no cakewalk.
No. 9 Elk Grove (8-2), No. 8 Hersey (6-3) and No. 6 Waubonsie Valley (8-1), which Hinsdale Central beat in last year's championship game, round out the top four seeds. Action gets under way Saturday, with the title game Dec. 23.
Waubonsie could draw surprisingly fast-starting No. 16 Downers Grove North (9-1) in an intriguing second-round game. Outstanding guards will be in plentiful supply at Wheaton North, including Toni Kokenis (Hinsdale Central), Megan Rogowski (Hersey), Keiera Ray (Waubonsie) and Fantasia Vine (Wheaton North).
Wheaton North coach Dave Eaton, whose team gets sixth seed Glenbrook South (8-2) in the first round, said the field is as loaded as he can remember in his seven years.
"Hands down the most competitive I've seen," Eaton said. "I told our kids it's the kind of tournament when you're done playing you should come back and watch the other games."
Lisle Cage Classic: Don't be surprised if the two best sister acts in DuPage County meet for the Lisle championship. New tournament entry and No. 11 Immaculate Conception (11-1), led by Taylor and Kasey Reaber, and No. 18 Wheaton Academy (7-1), led by Alexa and Sydney Sharkey, are the top two seeds.
The two teams both played at the season-opening Somonauk tournament but didn't meet on the court in a round-robin format. Third seed Walther Lutheran and fourth seed St. Francis figure to be the biggest roadblocks to what would be an entertaining, up-tempo Wheaton Academy-IC final scheduled for Dec. 30.
The Warriors took third last year after Coal City handed them their first loss of the season in the semifinals.
"Overall there's some pretty tough competition there," said Warriors coach Beth Mitchell, no stranger to Walther Lutheran from their Private School League rivalry days. "If we continue to play the way we've been playing we'll be OK."
Benet/Naperville North Holiday tournament: No. 2 Geneva (9-0) seeks to repeat its championship at the round-robin event running Thursday through Dec. 22.
No. 13 Glenbard West (8-3), which plays Geneva in the final night, could be the Vikings' stiffest competition. But the Hilltoppers have lost three of their last four after a 7-0 start. Glenbard West hopes to get senior Abigail Hastings (concussion) back by the end of the week.
"We're hoping for the same thing," said Glenbard West coach Mike Hofland, who played Geneva in last year's championship game. "We're looking forward to that matchup."
No. 14 Benet (7-4), WW South (6-2) and York (5-3) are the other contenders most likely to have chance to knock off Kat Yelle, Lauren Wicinski and Co.