Montini dominates defending champ Richwoods

If this was a Class 3A championship game preview, Montini may be in a class all its own.

The Broncos, ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press 3A poll, showed why in routing defending state champion and No. 3 Peoria Richwoods 50-33 on Tuesday at the Sterling Shootout. And here's a scary thought - Montini did it with Illinois State recruit Alison Seberger home with the flu.

"I wanted to play them because I knew they won state last year," Montini's Michala Johnson said. "I wanted us to come out, play hard and beat them. To show that we can play up to their level and we can beat them."

Montini's defense was suffocating throughout. Johnson's 6-foot-3 presence made any Richwoods shot near the basket an arduous proposition. She blocked 5 shots and altered several others.

Richwoods (8-4) required nearly a full quarter to score its first points. By that time Montini led 7-0, and 7-2 after a quarter behind 5 early points by point guard Whitney Holloway knifing through the Richwoods zone. Richwoods 6-foot Division I prospect Katie Murphy missed 8 of her first 9 shots with Johnson in her way.

"Watching her throughout the tournament I noticed that every time she caught the ball she just turned and jump-shot it," Johnson said. "It was easier to play behind her. I knew she was going to just turn around and face up anyway."

Johnson had 17 points and 13 rebounds, scoring 8 in the second quarter.

"She was a force," Montini coach Jason Nichols said. "Her length was the difference. We didn't have that in the Moline game (a 56-51 loss on Saturday) because she only played 14 minutes with foul trouble."

Leading 21-8 at half, Montini put the game away in the third quarter and found its long-range shooting. Mallory Sosnovich sank a pair of corner 3-pointers, then scored on a breakaway to make it 30-10 with 4:38 left in the third.

"I thought we did a pretty good job attacking their zone," Nichols said. "We actually penetrated. What we didn't do in the Moline game was we didn't get the ball inside enough. We did tonight."

Sosnovich scored 13 points with three 3-pointers, finding the range after being part of Montini's ice-cold 7 of 37 effort from distance against Moline. The Sterling fieldhouse shooting background was admittedly an adjustment.

"It took me at least a couple days to get used to the basket because the depth perception is different," Sosnovich said. "I was off the first couple days here. Today I was focused on getting more shots. Eventually they would fall."

Holloway scored 11 points and Whitney Adams had 9 rebounds for Montini (11-1). Mariah Smith scored 17 and Murphy 13 of Richwoods' 33-point total.

"People might say this is a state championship preview," Holloway said, "but you gotta get there first. It was a challenge playing the defending state champions. That's where we want to be at."