IC stops Montini at the right time
After several brutal seasons, Montini's boys basketball team has learned to win. On Friday, though, Immaculate Conception displayed the finishing touch.
The Knights held Montini scoreless the last 3 minutes, 4 seconds of the game and without a field goal the last 3:42, ending the game on an 11-2 run for a 56-44 victory in Elmhurst.
IC (18-2) maintained its hold on the Suburban Christian Conference Blue Division lead at 7-0.
"Once we hit a few shots we get a little confidence. We started picking it up on defense, getting stops and started running our offense to find the easy shot," said IC guard John Cheng, who scored a game-high 19 points.
"Our coach (Darren Howard) was really emphasizing that, and we just decided to step it up. We were lazy throughout three and a half quarters, and then we finally picked it up."
At halftime, when Montini (10-7, 4-3) owned a 23-21 lead, IC's top scorers Cheng and Demetrius Carr had scored 8 and 3 points, respectively.
Carr rallied with 9 of his 15 points in the third quarter, and Cheng popped for 11 fourth-quarter points.
"They didn't play well early and you saw the team drop," Howard said. "And then when they start playing well the whole team comes back up with them."
With the game tied 37-37 after two minutes of the third quarter, Cheng scored on a baseline drive.
Montini's Jon Gibbs, who scored 7 points with 5 steals, converted a three-point play for a 40-39 Broncos lead, but Cheng skipped through the lane for two straight baskets. The senior then assisted on inside scores by Adam Muellers and Jason Dunn for a 47-42 IC lead with 3:26 left to play.
Montini's Rich Bodee hit a pair of free throws with 3:04 left, but down the stretch the Broncos went 0 of 8 from the floor plus a turnover.
"We had a great energy to start out the ballgame," said Montini coach Brian Opoka, whose quick man-to-man defense forced the Knights into 6-of-19 first-half shooting but allowed 12-of-17 shooting in the second.
"We were right there, we were playing at the pace we wanted to play at. Then we just kind of got rattled and couldn't finish," Opoka said.
Another factor was IC's 16-of-29 foul shooting. Not great, but it beat Montini's numbers.
"When you come down the stretch and you go 4 for 13 shooting free throws you can't expect to win a basketball game, you just can't," said Bodee, who led the Broncos with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
"We missed wide-open layups," guard Logan Goss added. "Just got to work on it in practice."
Montini's Jim Miller and Pat Mooney each scored 6 points. Immaculate Conception's Brian Harvey added 9 points and Muellers scored 8 with 9 rebounds.
"We've learned," Opoka said of those 10 wins, and counting. "Now it's learn to continue to execute against a really good team."