Montini toughs out victory

Montini might not be the most skilled team, but whatever the Broncos don’t have skill-wise they make up for it with their size and strength.

The Broncos outmuscled St. Edward for a 49-38 win Friday night in Lombard.

One sequence told the story of how this contest was played. Montini was nursing a 40-38 lead with 1 minute, 28 seconds remaining when Matt Brachmann missed the second of two free throws, but teammate TyShawn Johnson squeezed through to St. Edward players, snagged the rebound and scored to push the Broncos’ lead to 42-38.

“We’re all about crashing the boards and that is what we did — we knew that we had to attack the boards,” said Johnson, who scored all of his game-high 12 points in the second half. “We had to get after it defensively and rebounding and we did. We wore them out.”

Johnson’s basket was one of several second-chance points the Broncos (3-1, 2-1) enjoyed throughout this Suburban Christian Conference Gold Division contest.

Montini had 22 offensive rebounds, which led to several scoring chances each time down the floor on offense.

“We’re naturally blessed in regards to just having size, and that helps,” Montini coach Brian Opoka said. “I think our kids went to the glass strong and got a couple of big offensive rebounds to really help set the tone. TyShawn’s offensive rebound was really big.”

St. Edward (4-5, 0-2) led throughout most of the contest. The Green Wave even opened a 20-11 advantage midway through the second quarter and led 20-13 at halftime, but Montini slowly crept closer thanks to its second-chance points. The Broncos eventually pulled even at 35 only to watch St. Edward guard Eddie O’Halloran knock down a 3-pointer to push the Green Wave’s lead to 38-35 with 3:17 left, but those were the last points for St. Edward.

“Offensive rebounds hurt us,” St. Edward coach P.J. White said. “The free-throw line hurt us and our inability to score in the fourth quarter hurt us. Their overall size hurt us in the long run. Our kids gave a great effort for 3½ quarters, not four, and we needed the full four tonight.”

St. Edward’s lack of height and size created foul issues for interior players Adrian Ponce and Zack McQueen, who both battled foul trouble throughout.

Neither team shot free throws well as Montini was 13 of 24 from the line but made 8 of 10 in the final quarter. St. Edward made 10 of 16 free throws but missed several front ends of 1-and-1 situations.

O’Halloran was the lone Green Wave player in double figures with 11 points.