St. Francis takes win from Montini

Try telling St. Francis coach Shawn Healy his Spartans were 16-point victors on Friday.

"We need to handle the ball better," Healy said after St. Francis' 63-47 Suburban Christian Blue victory at Montini.

"We're turning the ball over too much, we're not giving ourselves a chance to have some flow and some rhythm. We can't seem to get over that hump."

When required, St. Francis (4-9, 3-0) found enough flow. Montini (2-12, 0-4) tied the game 35-35 at 5:11 of the third quarter on layups by Tyshawn Johnson and Tim Perlowski. The Spartans answered with a decisive 15-2 run to lead 50-37 with 6:32 left in the game.

"Throughout the game we struggled a little bit getting our motion (offense) going," said Spartans forward Joe Pfeiffer, "but down that stretch we did a good job reversing the ball and looking for the open man and we were able to execute."

St. Francis' lone true big man in the rotation with Larry Murison and Ryan Coyle injured, Pfeiffer scored twice in the paint in that run, took a charge and hit a pair of 3s, including a swish as the third-quarter horn sounded.

The 6-foot-3 senior scored a game-high 23 points. Teammates Tony Vargyas scored 15, Mark Schmit 11 and always-active Dave Spahn grabbed 14 rebounds.

"I think we got some good lucks around the basket after that 35-35 point, where were were able to finish," Healy said. "We got some big defensive stops when we needed to, and I think that helped out a lot. We just need a little bit more rhythm early on in the game. The first half is just all over the place."

Montini forced 10 first-half turnovers and overcame two 5-point deficits to go into halftime trailing only 30-29.

"A couple of our sophomores like Jim (Harrington) took a big charge in the game and I was scoring. That's all we have to do is just play hard," said Johnson, who led the Broncos with 15 points.

Perlowski added 11 and Harrington 8, but Montini managed only 6 field goals after halftime.

The Broncos still crept within 51-43 with 4:54 left to play. St. Francis' 10-of-17 fourth-quarter foul shooting, 5 of 6 from Colin O'Donnell in the last 3:25, clinched the win but couldn't dim Montini coach Brian Opoka's optimism.

"I'm super, super, super proud of my kids," he said. "They showed me things today that they've not done all season, which means we're growing. And that's the most important thing for a young team, to be growing."