Wrap: Broncos blow past St. Edward
Knowing what's coming doesn't mean a team can stop it.
St. Edward girls basketball standout Katie Yohn played AAU ball last summer with Montini stars Michala Johnson and Alison Seberger, so she and the Green Wave knew full well the steep challenge the league-leading Montini Broncos presented in Friday night's Suburban Catholic Conference game in Elgin.
With talent at all five starting positions and a bench that runs 10 deep if not deeper, Montini blitzed the Wave -- whose talent pool this season is shallower by comparison -- with a 14-0 lead to open the game on the way to a 69-32 victory.
Montini's full-court pressure and hounding man-to-man defense forced 25 St. Edward turnovers and limited the Green Wave (7-6, 3-2) to 23 percent shooting for the game.
"We needed to run our offense," said Yohn, who led St. Edward with 15 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals. "I don't think we ran our offense once tonight. We just kind of freelanced everything."
Montini (12-4, 4-0) built its 14-0 lead on the strength of 2 buckets from Johnson -- the leading scorer in DuPage County last season as a freshman -- 2 jump shots from the top of the key by junior Chrissy Fletcher, Cootie Leeberg's 3-pointer, a free throw from Seberger and a transition basket by Kiki Wilson.
However, St. Edward stabilized after a timeout.
Yohn sank a 3-pointer to get St. Edward on the board before she single-handedly broke the Montini press to trim the deficit to 14-5 after one quarter of play.
Megan Pozezinski and Celeste Von Ahnen scored early in the second quarter to cap a 9-2 St. Edward run that pulled the Wave within 16-9.
"I guess we were ready at the beginning, but then we forgot about it and stopped," Leeberg said. "We didn't give up, but we stopped playing as hard as we were and they kind of came back. We let Katie Yohn shoot a lot, which wasn't our goal."
Montini outscored St. Edward 17-16 after its initial surge to take a 31-16 halftime lead, which wasn't satisfactory to Broncos coach Jason Nichols, whose standards for success are stringent.
"I thought offensively we were terrible," said Nichols, whose Broncos shot 53 percent for the game and sank 9-of-17 3-point attempts. "I don't look at the score to judge the effort. I'm going to judge the effort by the product I see, and tonight it just wasn't the greatest. But some individuals left me thinking, 'Hey, they deserve more time.' "
Reserve guard Mallory Sosnovich sank 4 of 6 attempts from 3-point range and finished with 13 points. Johnson led Montini with 14 points to go with 4 blocked shots and 2 steals. Jill Sullivan added 10 points off the bench on 5-of-5 shooting.
-- Jerry Fitzpatrick
Waubonsie Valley 61, Elgin 30:ŒRachel Bostick made her doctor look at her like she was crazy Friday afternoon.
After the Waubonsie Valley junior was cleared to play six games after she had dislocated her shoulder twice, she could not contain her excitement in the doctor's office.
Host Elgin also had trouble containing Bostick's excitement as she finished with 7 points in the Warriors' 61-30 Upstate Eight Conference victory.
"It feels good," Bostick said of her shoulder. "I was a little nervous at first. There were a couple of jump balls where I looked up at my mom in the stands and she looked like she was going to cry."
Elgin (0-17, 0-5) was without center and leading scorer Ellen Holton, who had surgery on her jaw. Holton's absence allowed the Warriors (16-1, 6-0) to dominate in the paint.
Forward Brittany Upshaw finished with a team-high 10 points, Bostick scored 6 points, LaTisha Morgan added 4 in the fourth period.
Despite the advantage down low, Elgin was within 26-13 at the end of the first half and both teams exchanged buckets to kick off the second half keeping the Warriors' lead at 13.
Elgin remained stuck at 17 for the next 6 minutes, 30 seconds as Waubonsie Valley scored 18 unanswered points. The Warriors went 8 of 11 from the floor in the third quarter and were an amazing 73.6 percent in the second half.
Waubonsie Valley finished the game with eight players with at least 5 points and had all 10 players score. Senior Alexis Delgado finished with 5 points and 2 assists in the fourth quarter and Anna Gault added 7 points, 3 assists and 2 steals.
"Our game plan is always to have balanced scoring," Waubonsie Valley coach Kris Kalivas said. "I was much happier with the way we came out in the second half."
Elgin sophomore Brandi Hernandez led all scorers with 11 points, despite leaving the game for a huge portion of the third period after hitting her head. The point guard scored 5 points in the second quarter, including Elgin's lone 3-pointer. Hernandez's 3-pointer with 6:25 remaining in the second quarter brought Elgin to within 14-9.
"She's starting to get some more composure," Elgin coach Angie Hudson said. "She did a really good job. She's starting to get a little more confidence. She needs to look for her shot a little more."
Hernandez's 3-pointer was met with a pair of buckets from Bostick which extended Waubonsie Valley's lead to 18-9.
-- Matt Stacionis
IC 53, St. Francis 47:ŒErin Hayes exploded for 32 points to carry the host Knights (7-10, 1-4) to victory in the Suburban Catholic Conference.
Hayes made two 3-pointers and went 14 of 16 from the foul line.
St. Francis (9-8, 1-5) held a 22-21 edge at the half, but IC outscored the Spartans 15-7 in the third quarter to move ahead 36-29.
Shannon Phillips' 12 points paced St. Francis.
Driscoll 61, Marian Central 51:ŒCourtney Lindfors totaled 19 points and 9 rebounds to power the Highlanders (14-2, 5-1) to a win in Suburban Catholic Conference action.
Bridget Delboccio contributed 16 points, while Taylor Reaber and Gigi DiGrazia added 10 apiece for Driscoll.
The Highlanders held a 20-7 lead after the first quarter.
Boys basketball
St. Francis 52, Immaculate Conception 34:ŒA strong perimeter game looked like the recipe for success in the first half for the St. Francis Spartans.
But a strong defensive effort from the visitors made St. Francis change its style to an inside game in the second half.
Nevertheless, the change worked to perfection as the Spartans used a second-half surge to defeat IC 52-34 in Suburban Catholic Conference action in Wheaton.
"We got good looks and knocked them down when we needed to (in the first half)," St. Francis coach Shawn Healy said. "We've got some good shooters on this team. Our passing was off, though. We needed to make crisper passes."
St. Francis (9-4, 4-1) opened the game with an 8-0 run on a pair of 3-pointers from Jack Purdom and a basket from John Ritt.
IC (5-7, 2-3) fought back to close within 8-4 after Brendan Ryan's jumper with 2:05 left, but the Spartans halted the rally and responded with a 12-1 run to take a 20-5 lead on Dan McCoy's 3-pointer at the 4:46 mark of the second quarter. St. Francis led 27-13 at halftime.
"I actually thought we played pretty well," IC coach Darren Howard said. "Our offense looked good, but we just didn't finish. They were aggressive on the glass and that caught our guys off guard."
The Knights, though, made things interesting in the second half. They closed the gap to as narrow as 30-23 after a basket by Matt Purdom -- Jack's cousin -- with 4:18 left.
St. Francis countered with a 13-2 fourth-quarter run to pull ahead 52-31 and earn its ninth win of the season.
"When they switched to a man-to-man it flustered us, but I thought we did a nice job making the adjustments and regrouping," Healy said. "Once we got our confidence back we finished strong."
Healy was also impressed with the way his team limited the 6-foot-5 Matt Purdom.
"I thought we did a tremendous job on him," Healy said. "Our defense stepped it up and held him to under double digits. That was a big part of our success."
Brian McMahon finished with a game-high 15 points while Dan McCoy added 14 for St. Francis. Matt Purdom led Immaculate Conception with 9 points.
"This was a good loss because we learned a lot about ourselves," Howard said. "We learned how to play a strong man defense against a good team, and I thought this was one of our best defensive efforts this season."
-- Kevin Shepke
Batavia 45, Kaneland 38:ŒSchool's out for a few more days, but Batavia was confronted with a tough test.
The Bulldogs passed, albeit just barely, and had a hard time doing so. Their 45-38 victory over Kaneland was neither artistic nor emphatic, but it was the basketball equivalent of an A-plus -- a win.
For Batavia, fresh off its championship showing at the Elgin Holiday Tournament, it marked the team's fifth straight victory as the Bulldogs moved to 13-2 overall and 6-1 in the Western Sun Conference.
Batavia, which managed just 3 points in the second quarter, actually trailed for much of the first three quarters before finding its offense and asserting control down the stretch. After a hideous 5-for-24 shooting performance in the first half -- which saw Kaneland take a 14-12 lead into halftime -- the Bulldogs finally regained the lead late in the third quarter on consecutive 3-pointers by David Bryant and Phil Albrecht.
"I thought we had some pretty good looks first half; a couple of times, the ball was down and just popped out," Batavia coach Jim Roberts said. "You have to fight through that, especially on the road."
They did, and once ahead, Batavia's defense turned the screws. The Bulldogs never again relinquished the lead en route to their narrow escape.
"Hopefully we learned some things about ourselves because we have to play better," Roberts said. "But give a lot of credit to Kaneland. They did a great job of taking away some things we wanted to do. They beat us to some loose balls, beat us on the glass and hit some big shots. It all showed up in the (final) score."
-- Jeff Long
Driscoll 61, Marian Central 48: Driscoll, led by Jake Lindfors' 23 points on the road, posted a 35-18 halftime lead and cruised to win the Suburban Catholic Conference contest in Woodstock. Matt Kaban added 16 points and Kevin Bain scored 12 for Driscoll (11-4, 4-0). Marian fell to 2-15, 1-5.